[K1avg]

Wow, it's bad enough that they try to force this spontaneous generation garbage down our throats, but now they argue that the moon is responsible for life?

Sheesh...

[LiteKeeper]

The DNA carries information that is used like a blueprint to build proteins out of amino acids. Where did that "information" come from? Information is never self-generated, nor can "matter" generate information. So all that DNA needs a source for it's information. Any ideas where it comes from?

[Fiddlstix]

Ping

[Ken522]

Without the Moon, there would have been no life on Earth.

Wait - this might be the secret justification for worshipping the moon after all!

[fella]

Looks more and more like the Earth is the only place where the Lord has placed life. And He told us to go forth and multiply .... Out there.

[socal_parrot]

Actually, they were talking about Christopher Cross' musical careear. After all, without the moon, what else would you be stuck between with New York City.

Best that you can do is fall in love...

[farmer18th]

These tides caused dramatic fluctuations in salinity around coastlines which could have driven the evolution of early DNA-like biomolecules.

could

what speculative drivel. Does someone get paid to write this nonsense?

[ASA Vet]

Even if there was water on Mars, life could not have evolved there

And when they find just one small fossil found there?

[VadeRetro]

Another abiogenesis theory (and the Luddites are in full screech mode).

[Mamzelle]

re: A billion years later when life is thought to have arisen)))

You can't ever write these sorts of articles without heavy use of the passive voice combined with vague references to an ungraspable passage of time--

But you particularly need the passive voice to imply that such assumptions are sorta really kinda actually (Hans Vavink ) beyond question except for knuckle-dragging fundamentalists...

And somebody please write this guy a nice research grant...

Hey, Pat, did we ever get those new fruit flies?

[Larry Lucido]

We Like The Moon.

[RightWhale]

It might be that the constantly changing conditions caused by tides would force lifeforms to higher behavior. Earth's rotation would provide this even without the moon, but the cycle would be simple. It's one thing to grow in a Petri dish, but another to be out in cyclical conditions. There is the daily sun cycle and the seasonal cycle, but adding the moon as another harmonic would complicate the enviroment. The complex cycles would force complex adaptation.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

I think this is a more accurate explanation of the moon's importance for life on Earth:

http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/

[mhking]

Without the Moon, there would have been no life on Earth.

Yep. No place for the Justice League's Watchtower to keep us all safe.

[AndrewC]

But the whole theory fails without some way of breaking apart the double strands to keep the process going, says Lathe.

The whole theory fails since there is no proven way to generate the oligomers(polymers are information-free) to even start the process. They've been pounding clay for several years to get peptides with no real success. They've "cheated" by taking a known protein and breaking it into two pieces. Then showing that the two pieces join back together, not much of a synthesis in my opinion.

[bondserv]

Butterflies in Amber Stun Discoverers   03/17/2004
New Scientist reports that exquisitely-preserved butterflies have been found in amber from the Dominican Republic.  “It was just incredible,” exclaimed a Smithsonian researcher.  It’s no different than if you took a modern day butterfly and put it under a light microscope.”  But this prompted a puzzle: the amber is estimated to be up to 25 million years old.
    Insects were thought to have diverged from non-insects 40 to 50 million years ago, but these Caribbean islands had to have drifted from the mainland up to 50 million years ago, based on current theories of when the islands separated from Mexico.  It is unlikely that the delicate butterflies could have crossed an ocean.  These specimens, therefore, must have already been present.  If so, “Butterflies may be far more ancient creatures than previously believed,” the article states, and therefore, “it is possible butterflies may have even fluttered around the heads of dinosaurs, which were wiped out 65 million years ago.”

This is a perfect time to review the correct procedure for reading a science article.  Always separate the data from the interpretation.  The data are five amber nuggets containing the “best-preserved fossil of any butterfly” yet found.  The species is almost identical to “its closest living relative” on the Mexican mainland.  The dates, and the stories about drifting islands and dinosaur wipeouts at such and such a time with butterflies fluttering about their heads, is all interpretive fluff.  Brush it away like cobwebs.  What remains?  Butterflies have always been butterflies.  No transitional form was found.  No date came on the samples.  No evolution was demonstrated – only beautiful design.  Does this discovery provide “vital clues to the evolution of butterflies”?  Does it explain why delicate butterflies, with wings like tissue paper, survived whatever killed macho, muscular dinosaurs?  We report – you decide.

Link

[philetus]

My theory is as good as his.

My theory says if there had been no life on earth, there would be no life on earth.

[7thson]

It would take some external force to dissociate the two strands, he says.

God!

[bondjamesbond]

Well, without the moon scouring off miniscule amounts of gas, the density of the earth's atmosphere would be much thicker, leading to a much higher surface temperature. Like around 400 degrees F.

Of course this is pointless speculation. The moon is there. The Earth is what it is.

[jwalsh07]

Well, I knew that the Moon was a harsh mistress but I didn't know that she beat life into the Earth. Live and learn.