363 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The failure of two-dimensional life The fossil record tells us that just prior to the Cambrian explosion of life, the earth was populated by a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied, shallow-water marine invertebrates, some with dimensions as large as 1 meter. This whole group of animals did not survive into Cambrian times, thus ending what has been termed The Ediacaran Experiment. Some paleontologists have tried to find similarities between the Ediacaran and Cambrian life forms to preserve the continuity of life. This has proved difficult, and some scientists now feel that The Edicaran approach to "largeness" was to increase surface area externally. The Ediacarans were therefore shaped like pancakes, tapes, fans, etc. This enabled them to present large areas to the environment for respiration, feeding, and other biological functions. In contrast, many present life forms achieve "largeness" by increasing internal areas, as in the lungs, folded intestines, etc., along with the forced circulation of air, blood, and other sub stances. This latter approach survived, while the two-dimensional Ediacaran Experiment did not. The demise or extintcion of the Ediacarans led Gould, the author of this far-ranging article, to the influence of extinctions on life in general -- a hot topic these days. Gould stated that with natural selection operating, one would expect continual "improvement" in life forms, but that this had not happened. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life As A Complex Of "Dominant States"To say that life is an "emergent property" of matter seems to have no more explanatory power than any of the other "origin" scenarios. It is less than satisfying. Be that as it may, scientists are now seeing some strange things happening on the "mesoscopic" scale; i.e ., from a few nanometers to a few millimeters (10-9 to 10-3 meters). This size range lies between the realms of quantum mechanics and macroscopic physics. Maybe these curious phenomena do have a bearing on how life started and whether it is really different from nonlife. Example 1. G. Whitesides, at Harvard, has dumped large quantities of millimeter-size iron balls into a plastic dish and then spun a bar magnet under the ensemble with startling results. The balls swarm around inside the plastic dish as the magnet rotates. At first the swarm is disordered. But after a minute, it breaks up into a set of concentric rotating rings. Within each ring, the balls follow one another along precise tracks, as if hugging the rim of an invisible roulette wheel. Soon the balls in each track are perfectly equidistant. Finally, one ball in each ring comes to a dead stop. The other balls in each track line up behind the leader in a tiny arc, even though the magnet is still whirling away below. Example ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 128: MAR-APR 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "Uprooting the Tree of Life"Yes, that is the title of a long article in the February 2000 issue of Scientific American. In the Table of Contents, we see words concerning this article that we never thought would be permitted in a mainstream science magazine. After first noting that 10 years ago it was generally agreed that all organisms evolved from a single ancestral cell that existed about 3.5 billion years ago, there comes the assertion that the Tree of Life: "is far more complicated than was believed and may not have had a single root at all." The article proper relates how the Tree of Life has its own evolutionary history. Twenty years ago, scientists had that single ancestral cell splitting into two main trunks: the prokaryotes (bacteria) and the eukaryotes (every-thing else). More recently, a third trunk has been grafted onto the Tree; namely, the archaea (microorganisms that look like bacteria but possess markedly different genes). The archaea favor extreme environments and, curiously, are more closely related to you and me than are the bacteria. But according to this article (by W.F . Doolittle), the triple-trunked Tree of Life is simplistic. One reason for this is that genes, once thought to flow only from parent to progeny, are now known to travel laterally. Species barriers are broken. Genes jump from trunk to trunk, from ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unearthly Life On Mars From the media standpoint -- and therefore that of most people -- the Viking Martian biological experiments were uncompromisingly negative. However, R. Lewis points out that this is simple not so. The labelled-release experiments on both landers produced positive results every time a nutrient was added to fresh Martian soil. (The nutrient was tagged with carbon-14, and radioactive carbon dioxide always evolved, suggesting biological metabolism.) Further, the soil samples, when sterilized by heat, gave uniformly negative results. On earth. such repeatable experiments would be considered strong evidence that life existed in the samples. The reason the Viking experiments were described as "negative" is that the other two life detection experiments produced negative or equivocal results. The gas chromatograph, for example, detected no organic molecules in the Martian soil; and it is difficult to conceive of life without organic molecules. At first, most scientists preferred to explain the ambiguous life-detection-experiment results in terms of strange extraterrestrial chemistry. Nevertheless, strange extraterrestrial life would explain the data equally well. Everyone should be aware that the Viking biology team still considers life on Mars as a real possibility. (Lewis, Richard; "Yes. There Is Life on Mars," New Scientist, 80:106, 1978.) Comment. Most research into the possibility of extraterrestrial life assume "life-as-we-know-it. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life Seeks Out Energy Sources Wherever They May Be Life is opportunistic; it siphons off energy wherever it can find it. That life utilizes solar energy we all know. And, of course, humans have tapped the atom for energy. In just the past few years, remarkable colonies of life forms have been discovered congregated around deep-sea hydrothermal vents where sunlight is essentially nonexistent. Still more recently, similar life forms have been found clustered around oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. As at the hydro-thermal vents, the clams, worms, crabs, and other organisms depend mainly upon the ability of bacteria to chemosynthesize -- the primary energy source being hydrogen sulfide in the vented water. (Paull, C.K ., et al; "Stable Isotope Evidence for Chemosynthesis in an Abyssal Seep Community," Nature, 317:709, 1985; Also: Weisburd, S.; "Clams and Worms Fueled by Gas?" Science News, 128:231, 1985.) Comment. Since the earth's crust seems honeycombed with fissures and rivers of life-sustaining fluids, subterranean life may be as common as the abyssal chemosynthetic life at the vents and seeps. This versatility of life signals us that we should look for life wherever there is energy of any kind. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Surface life (us!) only a "special case"T. Gold is again challenging our most cherished ideas about geology and life's domain. In the subject article -- his latest paradigm-shaker -- he first reviews the abundant evidence for the existence of large quantities of primordial hydrocarbons deep within the earth and (probably) many other planets throughout the universe. Associated with these hydrocarbons is a "deep, hot, biosphere." By "deep" Gold means 100 kilometers and more. It is this combination of a deep reservoir of hydrocarbons and life forms (probably mostly bacteria) that can account for (among other things): The fact that all helium comes from oil and gas wells The fact that the composition of petroleum is not what one would expect from the decomposition of plants and animals. It is really a mixture of primordial hydrocarbons with some added biochemical by-products; that is, products of that "deep" biosphere. Since carbonaceous material is now known to be common in the solar system (comets, carbonaceous chondrites, etc.), it is likely that many other planets also possess deep stores of hydrocarbons. In these deep, warm, protected, energyrich "wombs," complex biospheres might readily evolve. In Gold's view, deep biospheres may be the rule and surface life the exception! Finally, Gold sees life as merely a natural process with no ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects PERIODIC EXTINCTIONS AND EXPLOSIONS IN TERRESTRIAL LIFE Claims of a 26-million-year periodicity in biological extinctions have been given wide publicity recently. One theory has it that periodic comet showers have created this regular pulse beat in the history of life. A recent issue of Science presents the results of an analysis of the ups and downs of 20,000 marine genera -- that is, percent extinctions over a period of 600 million years, as revealed by the fossil record. The graph of ten groups of 1000 genera shows at least two things: (1 ) strong hints of periodicity; and (2 ) suggestions that extinctions, whatever they really are, "cut across functional, physiological, and ecological lines." The plotters of these graphs, D. Raup and G. Boyajian, claim that whatever the mechanism, "major pulses of extinction result from geographically pervasive environmental disturbances." What besides powerful, external physical forces (read "comets and asteroids") could affect such wide ranges of marine organisms? (Lewin, Roger; "Pattern and Process in Extinctions," Science, 241:26, 1988.) Comment . This all sounds so reasonable that one must wonder why it is given space in Science Frontier. The reason is that we have a suspicion that it is all too easy, too simplistic. Could something more subtle be at work? After all, we really know next to nothing ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why did life take a left turn?Life-as-we-know-it is left-handed; that is, our amino acid molecules are levorotatory rather than the mirror-image dextrorotatory versions. Because humans "expect" symmetry in nature, it is taken for granted that everything else in the universe is split equally between leftand right-handed molecules. Earth life is just a fluke -- or is it? On September 28, 1969, organic-rich stones fell in Victoria, Australia. This was the Murchison meteorite, and it may carry a message. Over a decade ago, M.H . Engel and B. Nagy reported that the organic molecules in the Murchison meteorite were not split 50:50 between left- and right-handed versions. So contrary to expectations was this finding that most scientists assumed that the analysis was contaminated by terrestrial organic molecules. Now, M.H . Engel and S.A . Macko have refined the analytical techniques and apparently avoided any taint of contamination. Their conclusion: the Murchison amino acids still lean to the left. From all this arise several intriguing possibilities: Life on earth started split evenly between left- and right-handed amino acids, but was nudged to the left by the influx of organic-laden meteorites like the Murchison. Terrestrial life actually originated elsewhere in the universe where much matter is left-handed, including life, if ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life In The Dark Two most interesting discovery have been made recently in deep ocean waters. First, abundant plant life has been found at depths of up to 268 meters, well beyond the 200-meter limit biologists had set based on the availability of sunlight. It wasn't difficult to discount photosynthetic life at 268 meters, because light there is only 0.0005% that at the surface. But there it was; and it may be found even deeper now that we've taken off the blinders. (Littler, Mark M., et al; "Deepest Known Planet Life Discovered on an Uncharted Seamount," Science, 227:57, 1985.) The second discovery came at 10,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. There, scientists in the submersible Alvin found a well-developed community of large clams, crabs, mussels, and tube worms, which closely resembles those around the Pacific hydrothermal vents. These life colonies do not use sunlight at all, nor do they depend on other life forms based on solar energy. They employ chemosynthesis, and the hydrogen sulfide and other substances in the vented waters replace sunlight. Although there are no obvious vents at the Gulf of Mexico site, the waters there contain plenty of hydrogen sulfide, indicating seepage from somewhere. The life forms are all new to science, although they resemble those in the Pacific. (Anonymous; "Worms without ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Terrestrial Life Older Than Expected The oldest fossils found so far are dated at 3.5 billion years ago. Discovered in Australia, these life forms seem to have been capable of synthesizing their own food, much like present-day plants. In other words, these life forms were not so primitive after all. If we are to assume that still simpler life and pre-life chemical evolution preceded these fossils, the advent of life on earth must be pushed back much farther to allow time for gestation. (Anonymous; "Oldest Life-Forms May Have Made Own Food," Eos, 61:578, 1980.) Comment. Another possibility is that life did not originate on earth and was instead brought here on comets, meteorites, etc. From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Life For Martian Life After the negative (some say "ambiguous") results from the Viking spacecraft life-detection experiments in 1976, astronomers and biologists have proclaimed that Mars is sterile. This pronouncement may have been premature. A meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1979 may change a few minds on this matter. This particular meteorite is one of the handful thought to have been blasted off into space by an oblique impact of an asteroid on the surface of Mars. Somehow, statistics were kind to these tiny Martian orphans, for they found their ways to the Antarctic snows. But what is really exciting is the recent discovery that chemical analysis of one of these purported Martian meteorites revealed a high concentration of organic material deep within. The implication is that Martian life existed, perhaps still does exist, beneath the Martian surface, where the Viking Lander's scoop could not get at it. (Anonymous; "Life under Mars?" Sky and Telescope, 78:461, 1989.) Comment. In other words, Mars like the earth, may harbor an unappreciated fauna in crevicular structure beneath the environmentally rigorous surface. See also: SF#67. From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life-creation from a different perspective The preceding discussion of life's origin at hydrothermal vents was penned by an oceanographer. Astronomers, it seems, prefer different scenarios. C. Chyba and C. Sagan, in a major review article in Nature, see a two-fold problem: (1 ) identifying the source of the raw materials; and (2 ) identifying the source(s ) of energy required for the synthesis of complex organic chemicals. First, they point to the steady drizzle of tiny, organic-rich particles drifting down to earth from cometary debris. These particles, which even carry spacesynthesized amino acids down to the earth's surface, seem likely chemical precursors of life. However, the atmosphere is also a potential source of prebiotic chemicals -- providing energy sources are available. Chyba and Sagan suggest as sources: lightning, ultraviolet radiation, and the shock energy derived from meteorite/asteroid/comet impacts. Together these energy sources, especially ultraviolet light, might synthesize thousands of tons of complex organic compounds each year. (Chyba, Christopher, and Sagan, Carl; "Endogenous Production, Exogenous Delivery and Impact-Shock Synthesis of Organic Molecules: An Inventory for the Origins of Life," Nature, 355:125, 1992. Also: Henbest, Nigel; "Organic Molecules from Space Rained Down on Early Earth," New Scientist, 2. 27, January 25, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life beyond 100 c Bacteria can survive and multiply in hot springs near and slightly above 100 C -- the boiling point of water at atmospheric pressure. Few scientists have contemplated the possibility of life forms prospering at temperatures well beyond 100 . Recently, however, the discovery of many new and frequently bizarre organisms clustered around deep-sea vents has forced a reexamination of high-temperature life. It seems that bacteria actually flourish in the 350 C water streams from the deep-sea vents. In the lab, these same bacteria multiply rapidly in water at 250 C kept liquid by pressures of 265 atmospheres of pressure. What a surprise! Quoting a concluding sentence from this article: "This greatly increases the number of environments and conditions both on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe where life can exist." (Baross, John A., and Deming, Jody W.; "Growth of 'Black Smoker' Bacteria at Temperatures of at Least 250 C," Nature, 303:423, 1983.) Comment. Ignoring for the moment the extraterrestrial possibilities, the earth is riddled like a Swiss cheese with hot, fluid environments, which we may now consider potential abodes of life. Subterranean life represents a new biological frontier. Who knows what kinds of organisms have developed to feed upon the planet's heat? Could they have con-tributed to our supplies of petroleum and natural gas? From Science Frontiers # ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spontaneous order, evolution, and life In our thinking, one of the most remarkable articles ever to appear in Science bears the above title. Most re markable of all is the use of the word "spontaneous" without philosophical comment. The stimuli for the research described are such observations as: (1 ) life exists; (2 ) life evolves; (3 ) the fossil record displays stasis, extinctions, and great gaps between phyla and lesser classifications; and (4 ) disordered molecules move smoothly and surely into the order manifest in the living cell. The question asked in the article is whether science has missed something in its description of the origin and development of life. Just what makes molecules coalesce into cells and humans? The answer given is: spontaneous self-organization ! In other words, there is no guiding external force. Molecules do this spontaneously. There are even computer models being developed, based on a branch of mathematics called "dynamical systems," that describe how this all happens - spontaneously, of course. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "Spontaneous Order, Evolution, and Life," Science, 247:1543, 1990.) Comment. When water molecules spontaneously cluster together to form a snowflake, with all its symmetry and order, science explains the process in terms of the properties of water molecules. The same must be true when molecules merge to form life forms. But ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Even Larger Ocean Of Life Fred Hoyle has written another book, The Intelligent Universe; A New View of Creation and Evolution. The subject matter is irresistible and, to make things more interesting, New Scientist has published a scathing review of it, castigating Hoyle for his doubts about evolution and terming his approach "dispicable." (My! How conventional people hate unconventional people!) In this new book, Hoyle goes far beyond his previous thesis, which in essence declared that from statistical considerations life could not have arisen and evolved on earth. Rather, life had to come from outer space, probably in the form of bacteria and viruses. Evolution was and is dependent upon new information arriving from outer space on tiny bits of life. Hoyle now greatly extends his theory: "But where did a knowledge of amino acid chains of enzymes come from? To use a geological analogy, the knowledge came from the cosmological equivalent of a previous era, from a previously existing creature if you like, a creature that was not carbon-based, one that was permitted by an environment that existed long ago. So information is handed on in a Universe where the lower symmetries of physics -- and characteristics of particles and atoms -- are slowly changing, forcing the manner of storage of the information to change also in such a way as to match the physics. It is this process that is responsible for our present ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is life a transitory phenomenon?We don't mean just life on earth, where it has hung on for a couple billion years, but life anywhere in the universe. Many cosmologists advance the socalled Anthropic Principle, which states that the physical constants of nature are honed to just the right values to make life possible. If the charge on the electron were a little less or the properties of carbon a bit different, life could not exist. The Anthropic Principle seems to imply that the universe was designed for earth life. But "design" is a bad word these days. It is redolent of purpose and a supernatural being. Suppose, though, that the Anthropic Principle is correct but only in our part of the cosmos and only for a little while. If the constants of nature are not really constant, life could be just a transitory phenomenon, flaring up here and there wherever conditions are ripe and the Anthropic Principle reigns. The cosmos as-a -whole might be lurching toward other goals or, perhaps, toward nowhere in particular. Enough philosophy! A team of Australian astronomers, led by J.K . Webb, has been trying to determine if the famous fine-structure constant of physics has really remained constant throughout the 12-billion years or so of the universe's history. The fine-structure constant is dimensionless and almost exactly equal to 1/137. (Why 137 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mind Before Life For some years S.W . Fox, at the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution, University of Miami, has been experimenting with possible precursors of life. So-called "microspheres" are hot items in Coral Gables these days. Fox and his colleagues make microspheres by preparing a heated stew of various amino acids. These amino acids form long polymer chains spontaneously. Then, when water is added and the mixture reheated (or processed in some other way), the polymers organize themselves, again spontaneously, into spheres a few microns in diameter. Each sphere consists of a two-layer membrane with residual material trapped inside. Although thicker, the microsphere membrane is very similar to the lipid bi-layer enclosing normal living cells. The relatively stable microspheres could, in theory, have formed sheltered environments for the evolution of the more complicated parts of living cells. The microspheres absorb sunlight and, with the addition of this energy, display some of the electrical characteristics of biological neurons, like those in the brain. The implication is that some components of "mind" may have existed in the very earliest life forms. (Peterson, Ivars; "Microsphere Excitement," Science News, 125:408, 1984.) Comment. Two comments here: First, the word "spontaneous" is customarily employed when describing how atoms unite to form molecules and molecules combine into polymers, which then gather ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life's origin within the earth?Biologists usually hark back to warm, sunlit swamps and tidal pools when contemplating the origin of life. Lately, Hoyle has proposed a cosmochemical origin (see OR DID IT DRIFT IN FROM WITHOUT? ). Few look within the earth. Yet, when Mt. St. Helens erupt-ed it essentially sterilized all lakes and ponds in the immediate area as far as known life forms were concerned, and then introduced previously unknown chemosynthetic bacteria. At least, this is one interpretation. Scientists at Oregon State University found the waters around the volcano to be teeming with these bacteria, up to a billion per drop. The bacteria resemble nothing in the local soil but do seem related to bacteria existing around Precambrian volcanos. (Anonymous; "Secrets of Life in a Volcano?" Boston Globe, July 14, 1981.) Comment. Were the new bacteria in the volcanic ejecta or had they just gone unnoticed in the soil? Could the hot rocks, geothermal brines, and restless magmas beneath our feet be the real cradle of terrestrial life, with photosynthesis-dependent surface species being relatively unimportant to the big picture? From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tunnelling Towards Life In Outer Space Most books on biology begin the history of life in those apochryphal warm ponds of primordial soup. Leave comfortable earth for a moment and consider the immense, cold clouds of gas and dust swirling between the stars and galaxies. At near-absolute-zero, sunless and waterless, these clouds hardly seem the womb of life. Yet, there may be found the atoms necessary to life -- H, C, O, N, etc -- and in profusion. Collisions of cosmic rays can promote the synthesis of fairly large molecules. We have already detected molecules as complex as formaldehyde in the interstellar medium. But surely the immensely more complicated molecules of biology cannot be synthesized near absolute zero. This may not be true either because at extremely low temperatures the quantum mechanical phenomenon of "tunnelling" becomes important. To achieve molecular synthesis, repulsive barriers must be overcome. The warm temperatures in that terrestrial pond can provide the extra kinetic energy to climb over these barriers. In cold molecular clouds we must look elsewhere. The laws of quantum mechanics state that there is always a very low probability that atoms and molecules can tunnel through repulsive barriers -- no need to climb over them via thermal effects. "Specifically, entire atoms can tunnel through barriers represented by the repulsive forces of other atoms and form complex molecules even though the atoms do not have the energy required by classical chemistry to overcome ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Really ancient oil -- and abundant life Geologists usually don't bother looking for oil in very ancient (Precambrian) rocks for two reasons: Conventional wisdom insists that oil is derived almost exclusively from organic matter, and additional conventional wisdom assures us that life was exceedingly scarce on earth billions of years ago. Any oil that was created billions of years ago would have surely been destroyed by intense pressures and high temperatures over the eons. Yet, Precambrian oil in commercial quantities has been found in formations up to 2 billion years old (in Siberia, Australia, Michigan, for example). While some of this oil might have migrated in-to the Precambrian rocks from younger source rocks, some of it does seem indigenous and, therefore, ancient. (SF#48) Now, three Australian scientists (R . Buick, B. Rasmussen, B. Krapez) have discovered tiny nodules of bitumen (lumps of hydrocarbons) in sedimentary rocks up to 3.5 billion years old in Africa and Australia. These bitumen nodules were formed when natural hydrocarbons were irradiated by radioactive isotopes that coexisted in the ancient rocks. Futhermore, these African and Australian rock formations were never severely deformed or subjected to high temperatures. The possibility exists, therefore, that some of the earth's oldest rocks may contain substantial oil reserves. So far, no one has seriously looked for oil in Precambrian rocks because of the two preconceptions ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life As A Cosmic Phenomenon "The arguments in support of life as a cosmic phenomenon are not readily accepted by a culture in which a geocentric theory of biology is seen as the norm." The quotation above heads a revealing discussion by F. Hoyle and N.C . Wickramasinghe as to why their conclusions about cosmic life have not been accepted by the scientific community. Stimulating this article was a statement by J. Maddox, Editor of Nature, to the effect that the labors of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe were not convincing very many scientists because they ". .. had become caught up in the eccentric doctrine of panspermiology, a doctrine for which there was said to be little or no evidence." Hoyle and Wickramasinghe deny their eccentricity and affirm that their ideas have been acquired through observation and the generally accepted methods of deductive science. Basically, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe maintain that evidence supports the concept of life originating, evolving, and being transported from place to place in outer space. We have published many of their results in past issues of SF and see no need to cover the same ground again. Rather, we wish to dwell on the scientific reception of their work. We do this with two quotations from their Nature article. These quotations are embedded in their review of the infrared evidence for biological material in outer space: "Still persuing the infrared problem, we eventually found that among organic materials polysaccharides gave the best ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A TALE OF TWO ECOSYSTEMS -- OR MAYBE MANY MORE Comment. It was quite fortuitous that the following two pieces, found on the same day, fit together so nicely. (Nature is fortuitous!) A group of scientists studying termites have isolated over 100 species of protozoa and bacteria living cooperatively inside the termites gut. Some of the bacteria even live inside the protozoa and other bacteria forming ecosystems of several symbiotic levels within each termite. Each termite itself is part of a complex social "superorganism," the termite colony. That termites had bugs in-side them has long been known; but the new-found complexity and interdependency of life systems within life systems is remarkable. The researchers believe that the life forms inside the termite work together to create the uniform internal environment needed by all inhabitants, just as the termites themselves cooperate to maintain a favorable environment inside their hill. (Anonymous; "And Littler Bugs Inside 'Em," Scientific American, 246:78, February 1982.) The termites, though, are only part of a much larger ecosystem, the earth itself. J.E . Lovelock, in his Gaia, A New Look at Life On Earth, has observed that our planet's environment has actually changed little down the eons despite solar variations. Lovelock's hypo thesis is that all terrestrial life -- animals, plants, termites, etc -- work sym biotically to maintain ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Early Life Surprisingly Diverse The three life forms sketched below are tiny microorganisms, not the worms they appear to be. They are thought to be bacteria, for they closely resemble modern cyanobacteria. What is most important about these fossilized micro-organisms is that they were found in the Apex chert of Western Australia. The Apex chert is designated Early Archean and assigned an age of 3.465 billion years [Four significant figures!]. It is rare to find any fossils at all in rocks this old, but apparently the Apex chert escaped most of the fossil-destroying metamorphism afflicting most Precambrian formations. Even more remarkable is the diversity of these suspected bacteria. J.W . Schopf reports finding no less than eleven different kinds so far--and our planet was only a few hundred million years old at the time the Apex chert was formed. Schopf's discoveries generate at least three questions: How could life have originated and diversified to such an extent in just a few hundred millions years? Why after such rapid diversification did these microorganisms remain essentially unchanged for the next 3.465 billion years? Such stasis, common in biology, is puzzling. If these microorganisms are really cyanobacteria, they would have released oxygen to the atmosphere. Is the standard assumption that the earth's atmosphere lacked oxygen until 2.2 billion years ago correct? (Schopf, J. William; "Microfossils of the Early ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is there life on mars after all?G. Levin and P. Straat, who designed one of the three life-detection experiments on the Mars Viking landers, have always maintained that the positive results obtained with their experiment were unreasonably overruled by the negative data from the other two experiments. At a recent scientific meeting in Washington, they stated: "It is more likely than not that our experiment detected life on Mars." Their research in the decade following the Mars landings has only strengthened their belief. Further, they have demonstrated that one of the other life-detection experiments producing negative results was not sensitive enough to detect low population levels of microorganisms. Realizing that the no-life-on-Mars dogma is well-entrenched, they looked for other kinds of evidence for life. "In support of their claims, the two researchers presented two photographs of a Martian rock taken years apart by a camera on one of the landers. The photographs show greenish patches which had changed over time. Spectral analysis of the photographs compared favorably with the spectra given out by lichen-bearing rocks on Earth, as seen through a replica of the lander's camera." (Anonymous; "Is There Life on Mars After All?" New Scientist, p. 19, July 31, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rock-Based Life Virtually all biology textbooks insist that all terrestrial life ultimately depends upon sunlight for its survival. The ecosystems clustered around the deep-sea vents and the bacteria found in deep aquifers demonstrate that the sun is not essential to life -- chemical energy does just fine. In fact, the domain of chemosynthetic life has now been extended to a Romanian cave that has apparently been almost completely sealed off from surface influences for 5.5 million years. Air does leak in through tiny cracks, and water partially fills the cave. What is most remarkable in this sunless, sealed ecosystem is its biodiversity: 48 animal species, including 33 brand-new species. The roster includes isopods, a millipede, a centipede, a water scorpion, and a leech. Of course, bacteria and fungi thrive there, too. In contrast to unsealed caves, where insects, bats, and other sources of food filter in from the surface, life in the Romanian cave seems to derive entirely from hydrogen sulfide present in the cave's rocks. This compound is consumed by microorganisms, which are then grazed by cave occupants higher up the food chain. A NASA scientist has called Movile cave a "Mars analog site." And indeed it might be, for Mars has plenty of rocks and subsurface water. (Skinrud, E.; "Romanian Cave Contains Novel Ecosystem," Science News, 149: 405, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Comets And Life A comet impact: Cross-sectional view 0.637s after impact of a comet into a 3km-deep ocean (light dots) underlain by basaltic crust (darker grid) in the smoothed particle hydrodynamic model of Thomas et al. Small vertical ticks are 1 km apart, small horizontal ticks 1.25 km apart. The comet in this figure has a radius of 1 kilometer and an impact velocity of 15 km/s and is shown by dark dots in the ocean. The initial spherical comet has become flattened, and parts of it have separated from the main body. The back side of the comet and most of the separated particles are much lower in temperature than the impacting side, and in an impact of a smaller comet (which would look much the same), organic material at the rear of the comet would survive intact. Figure provided by Paul Thomas. "New simulations suggest that large amounts of the organic molecules needed to form the first life on Earth could have been brought by comets that bombarded the planet early in its history. The models show that comets of moderate size would have slowed down enough during entry into the Earth's atmosphere for their organic component to survive the impact intact. .. .. . "The idea that comets supplied the Earth with the organic material needed to create life has been around for more than 20 years, but as often as some ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cancer: the price for higher life?For unknown reasons, plants and the simpler animals, such as sponges and jellyfish, do not get cancer. But all laterally symmetric organisms are prone to cancer. According to James Graham, the acquisition of cancer-initiating onco-genes by organisms (also an unexplained event) has forced these afflicted organ-isms to develop all sorts of defenses against external forces which might, with the help of the oncogenes, trigger cancer. Typical biological defenses include systems to insure accurate replication of cells, to destroy transformed cells, and to protect or immunize the organism against invading systems. Efficient im-mune systems in turn permitted life to invade mutagenic environments (such as sunlight) and to shed restrictive body coverings. In other words, cancer may have been a blessing in disguise -- the price of higher life| (Anonymous; "Cancer: The Price for Higher Life?" New Scientist, 99:766, 1983.) Comment. Note how easy it is for us to say "developed" this or that characteristic in response to some applied force. Exactly how such responses are made is a major mystery. And why do oncogenes exist? Are they a product of chance? They hardly confer short-term survival capability. Reference. The existence and insidious-ness of cancer pose many questions. These are broached in BHH23-35 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Large moon essential to the development of life?Even before its well known effect on romance, our moon was the key to the development of life on earth, according to J. Pearson. He ventures that our ponderous moon (much larger than the moons of Mars) was the key to the melting of the earth's core via tidal friction. With a fluid core, the earth developed a strong magnetic field (much stronger than those of the other inner planets) through dynamo action. This field protected nascent life from space radiation -- and here we are! (Hecht, Jeff; "Lunar Link with Life on Planets," New Scientist, p. 40, January 21, 1988.) Comment. Current scientific opinion declares that the moon was captured by the earth -- a rather rare astronomical event. The capture of a very large moon would be even rarer. From this shaky chain of thoughts, we conclude that life in the universe must be exceedingly scarce. However, such long chains of inferences are usually found to be far off the mark. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Cosmic Chemistry Of Life C. Ponnamperuma, at the University of Maryland, speculates that the genetic code employed by earth life may, in fact, reflect a universal chemistry. His lab data "suggest that the formation and linking of life's building blocks -- amino acids and nucleotides -- may have been all but inevitable, given the starting chemistry of earth's 'primordial soup.'" Going even further Ponnamperuma believes that "if there is life elsewhere in the universe, chemically speaking it would be very similar to what we have on earth." (Raloff, J.; "Is There a Cosmic Chemistry of Life?" Science News, 130:182, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life On Different Scales In SF#110, we introduced the possibility of nannobacteria: life forms that are smaller than 0.4 micron, perhaps even as small as 0.01 micron. Nannobacteria are not completely accepted as bona fide organisms. However, electron microscopes are imaging "somethings" that are very tiny and ubiquitous. We now shift speculation to life forms much larger than blue whales or even that 2,000-meter-wide box huckleberry mentioned in SF#82/170. In fact, we will transcend even Gaia; that is, earth-asanorganism (SF#56/339); and ask whether entire universes might be alive in the sense that they are governed by natural selection, can transmit hereditary information, and adapt themselves to new situations. The evidence for such large-scale living systems or super-superorganisms is widely pooh-poohed by biologists because it does not meet their definition of life; i.e ., metabolism, reproduction, etc. But perhaps they are missing something by thinking too small. In this vein, M.G . Bjomerud has opined: ". .. there is no reason to expect that super-organisms would meet criteria based on observations of individual organisms. Isn't it time to consider the possibility that the boundary between life and non-life may be diffuse, non-stationary over time, and dependent on scale?" ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Martian Life: Act Ii The final issue of New Scientist for 1996 carried an article entitled "Death Knell for Martian Life." Was all that media hype for naught? What will NASA do now? Wait! Another putative Martian rock may save the day. Picked up in Antarctica in 1974, meteorite EETA 79001 weighs 7.9 kilograms and is superficially unimpressive. Inside, though, researchers I.P . Wright and C.T . Pillinger found a surprising quantity of organic compounds -- actually 1.5 parts per thousand by mass. This fraction is so large that terrestrial contamination seems remote. Furthermore, the organic component contains 4% more carbon-12 (relative to carbon-13) than the adjacent carbonate minerals. This is strong evidence that the organics had a biological origin. Similar tests on the media-hyped Martian meteorite ALH 84001 yielded the same carbon ratios. Pillinger remarked: "These results offer the strongest support yet for the hypothesis that life once existed on the planet." So far so good, but EETA 79001 conveys two additional facts -- both very tantalizing: (1 ) This meteorite was blasted off the Martian surface only about 500,000 years ago; and (2 ) It probably came from a different hemisphere than ALH 84001. From all this, a somewhat shaky conclusion: Life on Mars existed not only recently (and perhaps is still present) but was ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The fossil record and the quantization of life!A recent article on the possible quantization of galaxies was placed immediately before an interview with S. Stanley, one of the proponents of punctuated evolution. Either fate or the mysterious forces of seriality seemed to be saying that it is now time to broach the subject of the quantization of life itself. The reader can blame Stanley only for the stimulus and his discussions of speciation and the discontinuous (quantized?) fossil record. (Campbell, Neil A.; "Resetting the Evolutionary Timetable," BioScience, 36:722, 1986.) Comments. When we suggest quantization in biology, two phenomena come to the fore: 1. The obvious splitting of life into well-defined states -- the species -- as defined morphologically and/or by the genetic code; and 2. The gaps in the fossil record, which imply a frequent lack of transitional forms from one species to another. As Stanley asserts repeatedly in his interview, the fossil record is actually quite good in many places, despite the long-voiced claims of the gradualists that transitional forms do not exist merely because of the deplorable state of the fossil record. In physics the analogous phenomena would be: (1 ) The chemical elements and their isotopes (or an atom's energy levels); and (2 ) The lack of transitional forms. Straining the analogy still further, the evolution ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Creations Of Life?The lifeforms called Archaea and Eubacteria follow radically different life styles. The former are very happy in such extreme environments as the salty Dead Sea and the sea-bottom, hydrothermal vents; the latter prosper in bad hamburgers and your gut. Despite their differences, they have always been thought to have evolved from a common ancestor. A more subtle, fundamental difference has now been found. Recall SF#117 and how some terrestrial life forms do incorporate right-handed molecules in their structures, especially in cell membranes? The ubiquitous Eubacteria do this. In the Archaea, however, the same structural components of the cell membranes (glycerophosphates) are left-handed. A subtle difference, but one with deep implications. Some scientists maintain that it is impossible for two organisms relying upon mirror-image versions of the same molecule to have evolved from a common ancestor. Their genomes must be fundamentally different. Conclusion: the Archaea and Eubacteria must have evolved separately, and from different biological wellsprings -- that is, "creations." Such thinking is anathema. M. Kates, a Canadian evolutionary biologist, is skeptical. "Both the physics and chemistry of membranes are so complex that I would regard it as highly improbable that they could have auto-assembled twice." (Barnett, Adrian; "The Second Coming," New Scientist, p. 19, February 14, 1998.) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Icy Comets, Oceans, Life Our thought, expressed in SF#125, that the icy-comet controversy might be winding down was premature. P. Huyghe, coauthor with L. Frank of The Big Splash, responded to SF#125 with three recent articles. Two reply to major criticisms of the icy-comet theory; the third gives geological and geophysical reasons why there must have been icy comets or some other substantial influx of water and carbon to the earth's surface down the geological eons. No instrumental artifacts. The basis for the 1985 claim of L. Frank et al that small, icy comets continually bombard the earth's upper atmosphere came from photos taken far above the earth from the Dynamics Explorer 1. Large, transient "holes" appeared in the atmosphere. These were attributed to vapor clouds created by small, icy comets. (SF#44) Critics claimed that these "holes" were no more than instrumental errors. L.A . Frank and J.B . Sigwarth have investigated this possibility and have rejected it. (Frank, J.A ., and Sigwarth, J.B .; "Atmospheric Holes: Instrumental and Geophysical Effects," Journal of Geo physical Research, 104:115, 1999. Cr. P. Huyghe) Navy radar search used incorrect cross sections. A more recent attack on the icy comets came from S. Knowles et al ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Can spores survive in interstellar space?There is good evidence that life appeared on earth just 200-400 million years after the crust had cooled (assuming conventional methods of measuring age). Two hundred million years seems a bit on the short side for the spontaneous generation of life, although no one really knows just how long this process should take (forever?). The apparent rapidity of the onset of terrestrial life has led to a reexamination of the old panspermia hypothesis, in which spores, bacteria, or even nonliving "templates" of life descended on the lifeless but fertile earth from interstellar space. P. Weber and J.M . Greenberg have now tested spores (actually Bacillus subtilis) under temperature and ultraviolet radiation levels expected in interstellar space. They found that 90% of the spores under test would be killed in times on the order of hundreds of years -- far too short for panspermia to work at interstellar distances. However, if the spores are transported in dark, molecular clouds, which are not uncommon between the stars, survival times of tens or hundreds of million years are indicated by the experiments. Under such conditions, the interstellar transportation of life is possible. But perhaps the injection and capture phases of panspermia might be lethal to spores. Weber and Greenberg think not -- under certain conditions. The collision of a large comet or meteorite could inject spores from a life-endowed planet ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archaea: the living ancestors of all life forms Life's place of origin may soon shift from that long-favored "warm little pond" to undersea hydrothermal vents. "Important new discoveries on the properties of the early earth and atmosphere, including the frequency and size of bolide impacts, have strongly implicated submarine hydrothermal vent systems as the likely habitat for the earliest organisms and ecosystems, while stimulating considerable discussion, hypotheses and experiments related to chemical and biochemical evolution. Some of the key questions regarding the origins of life at submarine hydrothermal vent environments are focussed on the effects of temperature on synthesis and stability of organic compounds and the characteristics of the earliest organisms on earth. There is strong molecular and physiological evidence from present-day mircoorganisms that the earliest organisms on earth were capable of growing at high temperatures (about 90 C) and under conditions found in volcanic environments. These 'Archaea', the living ancestors of all life forms, display a variety of strategies for growth and survival at high temperatures, including thermostable enzymes active at temperatures about 140 C. Further molecular and biochemical characterization of the presently cultured thermophiles, as well as future work with the many species, particularly from subsurface crustal environments, not yet isolated in culture, may help resolve some of the important questions regarding the nature of the first organisms that evolved on earth." (Baross, J.A .; "Hyperthermophilic Archaea: Implications for the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geophysiology The concept of the earth-as-an-organism -- the so-called Gaia hypothesis -- keeps popping up. We now have an excellent progress report on current Gaia research; e.g ., the Daisyworld model; by J.E . Lovelock. He defines Gaia in an early paragraph: "In the early 1970s, Lynn Margulis and I introduced the Gaia hypothesis. It postulated the earth to be a self-regulating system comprising the biota and their environment, with the capacity to maintain the climate and the chemical composition at a steady state favorable for life." L. Margulis is an author of Micro-Cosmos and a champion of evolution-via-endosymbiosis; that is, diverse organisms uniting to create new species. Going back to Lovelock's review, there is little that is anomalous on a small scale. Of course, on a large-scale, the data supporting the concept of life-as-a -whole manipulating the atmosphere, oceans, etc., to perpetuate and perhaps improve itself are highly anomalous, because the Gaia hypothesis is far out of the scientific mainstream. (Lovelock, James E.; "Geophysiology," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 67:392, 1986.) Comment. Our secret purpose here is to use the Lovelock article as an excuse to out-Gaia Gaia! Lovelock's article plus those preceding on ...
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... particularly in the light of the discovery that RNA molecules can extrude introns and then behave like enzymes. "The most likely site for the inorgan ic construction or an RNA chain, which would have occurred in the Archaean, is in a hydrothermal system. Only in such a setting would the necessary basic components (CH4 , NH3 , and phosphates) be freely available. Suitable pH (fluctuating around 8) and temperatures around 40 C are characteristic of hydrothermal systems on land. Furthermore, altered lavas in the zeolite metamorphic facies, which are rich in zeolites, clays and heavy metal sulphides, would provide catalytic surfaces, pores and molecular sieves in which RNA molecules could be assembled and contained. If the RNA could then replicate with the aid of ribozymes and without proteins, the chance of creating life becomes not impossible but merely wildly unlikely." The article concludes with a statement that self-replicating molecules synthesized in hydrothermal systems would be pre-adapted to "life" in the open ocean if they "learned" to surround themselves with bags of lipids. (Bag of lipids = a membrane.) (Nisbet, E.G .; "RNA and Hot-Water Springs," Nature, 322:206, 1986.) It just so happens that D.W . Deamer, University of California, Davis, has now found that the 4.5 -billion-year-old Murchison meteorite from Australia contains lipid-like organic chemicals that can self-assemble into membrane-like films. His paper was presented before the International Society for the Study of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Plant Life On Mars?" Strong evidence that plant life exists on Mars was advanced today by Earl C. Slipher, American astronomer, after observation of the planet, which is closer to the earth this month than at any time since 1924. .. .. . "His theory is founded on an apparent change in the planet's surface, regarded as his most important discovery. "The huge dark spot (Solis Lacus) or the Great Eye of Mars, seems to have assumed a shape not observed for fifty years, if ever before. Mr. Slipher indicated that this was strong evidence that plant life existed on the planet, and suggested that the change was due to fresh vegetation over an area roughly the size of the United States." (Anonymous; "Evidence of Plant Life on the Planet Mars Is Announced by an American Astronomer," New York Times, July 21, 1939. Cr. M. Piechota.) Comment. What a difference 59 years make! Could those tiny structures in ALH 84001 be fossilized pollen grains? From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why Intelligent Life Needs Giant Planets The two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are 318 and 95 times more massive than the earth, respectively. Being so weighty they strongly perturb the orbits of comets, deflecting many away from the inner solar system, where we reside. Calculations by G. Wetherill, at the Carnegie Institution, reveal that if Jupiter and Saturn were only 15 times the mass of the earth, the earth would have been devastated every 100,000 years by giant comets, instead of about every 100,000,000 years, as indicated by the geological record. Under such intense bombardment, it would probably have been difficult for advanced life forms to develop. (Croswell, Ken; "Why Intelligent Life Needs Giant Planets," New Scientist, p. 18, October 24, 1992.) Comment. Reasonable as the foregoing assertion sounds, we do not really know what stimulates the development of new life forms. Actually, the fossil record reveals that some biological "radiations" occurred soon after great geological upheavals. That the Jupiter-Saturn "shield" was and is not completely effective is indicated by the heavy debris traffic mentioned above. From Science Frontiers #85, JAN-FEB 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Living stalactites! subterranean life! (in three parts)Translation of the Introduction of an article from Science et Vie : "One has always held that the calcareous concretions in caves are the work of water and the chemical constituents of the rock. Surprise! The true workers in the kingdom of darkness are living organisms." It's all true. All the references we have state unequivocally that stalactites and stalagmites are created by dripping water that is charged with minerals, calcium carbonate in particular. That stalactites contain crystals of calcite is not denied in the Science et Vie article. Indeed, an electron micro scope photograph shows them clearly; but it also shows that a web of mineralized bacteria is also an intergral part of the stalactite's structure. Laboratory simulations have shown that microorganisms take an active role in the process of mineralization. (Dupont, George; "Et Si les Stalactites Etaient Vivantes?" Science et Vie , p. 86, August 1987. Cr. C. Mauge.) Besides being a surprising adjustment of our ideas about stalactite growth, the recognition that microorganisms may play an active role in the subterranean world stimulates two new questions: (1 ) Can we believe any longer that stalactite size is a measure of age, as is often claimed? (2 ) Is the immense network of known caves (some as long as 500 kilometers) the consequence only of chemical actions? It turns ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Subterranean life! (part 3)We almost forgot this recent tidbit from Science News that mentions microscopic life forms: "In recent years, scientists have found bacteria, as far down as 1,150 feet, in wells that penetrate deeply buried aquifers -- porous layers of rock that hold underground water. Such finds have forced hydrologists to question their traditional belief that deep aquifers were devoid of life. But it was not clear whether these bacteria were native residents of the aquifers or just contaminants from the world above, living solely within the wells. Moreover, no one had established how the bacteria were affecting the environment, if at all." Experiments have now shown that these subterranean bacteria are indigenous and are important to groundwater chem istry. The bacteria feed on organic molecules and display a curious propensity for metabolizing the carbon-13 isotope rather than carbon-12. Thus, carbon dissolved in some deep aquifer water is enriched in carbon-13 compared to surface water. None of the bacteria found so far seems dangerous to humans. (Monastersky, R.; "Bacteria Alive and Thriving at Depth," Science News, 133: 149, 1988.) Comment. Subterranean bacteria may be associated with the creation of oil and natural gas. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Game of life favors right-handers With condolences to our southpaw readers, things do not look too good for them. Accidents. "Left-handed people are almost twice as likely to suffer a serious accident as right-handers, according to a recent study. Stanley Coren, an experimental psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, claims that his finding helps to explain why less than 1 per cent of all 80year-olds are 'southpaws,' whereas they comprise nearly 13 per cent of all people aged 20." Coren surveyed students at his University for four years and found that the probability of a left-hander having a car accident was 85% higher; accidents with tools were 54% higher; home accidents were 49% higher; etc. Coren blames these lopsided statistics upon the fact that the world is ordered for right-handers, not that left-handers are innately more clumsy. (Dayton, Leigh; "The Perils of Living in a Right-Handed World," New Scientist, p. 32, October 28, 1989.) But Coren's study, above, omits the "health" factor, which we now supply from a different source. "Halpern and Coren recently described an association between lefthandedness and a lower life expectancy. This finding is not unexpected because left-handedness has been linked to three leading causes of death in our society - ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It Came From Within Life did, that is! Forget that warm little pond where life incubated according to all the textbooks. Instead, says T. Gold, an iconoclastic Cornell physicist, life began in rocky fissures deep down in the earth's crust. The idea is not as unlikely as it sounds. Look at the most primitive life forms we know, the archaebacteria. They like heat, need neither air nor sunlight, and prosper on sulfur compounds for sustenance. Such bacteria are today found in boreholes as deep as 500 meters, in thermal springs, and around deepsea vents. Gold surmises that these archaebacteria migrated to the surface long ago, where they evolved into higher forms of life. "Gold argues, moreover, that the earth's interior would have provided a much more hospitable environment for proto-life four billion years ago than the surface would have, ravaged as it was by asteroids and cosmic radiation. And if life emerged within the earth, then why not within other planets? 'Deep, chemically supplied life,' Gold says, 'may be very common in the universe.'" (Horgan, John; "It Came from Within," Scientific American, 267:20, September 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Nether Universe Of Life Bacteria well-adapted to high temperatures have been brought up from oil wells thousands of miles apart. All indications are that these bacteria are indigenous to the wells; that is, not introduced by the drilling fluids. What is most interesting is the fact that these bacteria are all closely related despite their remoteness from each other. They not only look and behave alike, but they also share 98.2 % of their 16S ribosomal RNA sequences. M. Magot asks what an anomalist would ask. "For example, where are these bacteria from? How did they succeed in colonizing these habitats?...Are these microorganisms directly descended from bacteria that were trapped during the formation of the oil, or accompanied its migration through tens to hundreds of millions of years? Did they arrive in the oil field later as a consequence of aquifer activity? What is their mode of maintenance and development in their environment?" (Magot, Michel; "Similar Bacteria in Remote Oil Fields," Nature, 379:681, 1996) Comment. Bacteria have also been extracted from mineral-charged fluids circulating in drill holes over 12 kilo meters deep and also in deep aquifers. There must be an unexplored universe of life thriving not only beneath our feet but also - quite possibly - beneath the forbidding surface of Mars. Reference. Examples of life thriving at great depths in the earth may be found ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Explaining lunar flashes with life-savers Two recent items in the literature suggest ways in which flashes of light can be generated on the face of the moon. The first enlists the "Life-Saver effect (or "sugar-cube effect"). When Life Savers, sugar cubes, or rocks are fractured, light may flash from their broken surfaces. R.R . Zito, from Lockheed, thinks these flashes occur when energetic electrons are emitted from freshly fractured surfaces. Lunar rocks cracking under stress might very well produce flashes visible from earth. Zito also states that newly fractured rocks emit a curious burst of radio waves in the frequency range of 900-5 ,000 Hertz. (Eberhart, J.; "Does the Moon Spark Like a Life-Saver?" Science News, 136: 375, 1989.) The second explanation of lunar flashes blames them on earth satellites passing in front of the moon. Satellite surfaces can flash like a car's windshield in sunlight, thus simulating a lunar flash. It was just this mechanism that was used to explain the mysterious "flasher" in the constellation Perseus. (SF#53) The May 23, 1985, lunar flash, reported in SF#64, may have been a reflection from a large military weather satellite that was transiting the moon at the time of the flash, say R.R . Rast and P. Maley. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Artificial molecule shows 'sign of life'A synthetic molecule has been found that apparently replicates itself. This seems to be a step on the road to artificial life. "Julius Rebek, Tjama Tjivikua and Pablo Ballester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that their compound, an amino adenosine triacid ester (AATE), acts as a "template" which combines molecular fragments to make a copy of the original compound. This process is very similar to that used by DNA. The difference is that the biological copying usually needs an enzyme to make it work." (Emsley, John; "Artificial Molecule Shows 'Sign of Life,'" New Scientist, p. 38, April 28, 1990.) Comment. No one can say that replication is a "spontaneous" property of inorganic matter. It is truly remarkable that base matter is intrinsically self-organizing and replicating. We know! It is all because the universe just happens to be anthropic. From Science Frontiers #70, JUL-AUG 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Islands Of Hope For Life Eternal Frautschi examines expanding "causal" regions in the universe, where entropy (disorder) does not increase as fast as the maximum predicted by Thermodynamics. The conclusion of this highly theoretical paper is that, even in these "islands of hope," life and the order it requires cannot survive indefinitely if it is restricted to solid substances. But, ". .. it stands as a challenge for the future to find dematerialized modes of organization (based on dust clouds or an e- e+ plasma?) capable of self-replication. If radiant energy production continues without limit, there remains hope that life capable of using it forever can be created." (Frautschi, Steven; "Entropy in an Expanding Universe," Science, 217:593, 1982.) Comment. Who said Science was a conservative journal? This smacks of scifi tales of electrolife and Hoyle's Black Cloud. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Exploring The Suberranean World Of Life Examining fluid inclusions in hydrothermal quartz crystals obtained from a drill hole in Yellowstone National Park, K.E . Bargar and his colleagues from the U.S . Geological Survey noted many rodlike and threadlike particles that closely resembled bacteria. Although these partiles move, as if alive, they are only in Brownian motion. But even in death, they tell us that life forms can prosper deep underground at very high pressures and temperatures. The crystals that ultimately grew around the fluid particles came from fractures in Pleistocene rhyolite hundreds of feet below the surface. The authors concluded: "Thermophilic microorganisms may hold the key to an understanding of several biological and geochemical processes, including the origin of life. The discovery of possible microorganisms in these fluid inclusions from the Yellowstone volcanic area enlarges the range of potential environments over which subsequent investigations should be conducted." (Barger, Keith E., et al; "Particles in Fluid Inclusions from Yellowstone National Park -- Bacteria?" Geology, 13:483, 1985.) Comment. It is appropriate to note that similar "organized elements" have been noticed in meteorites for over a century. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's according to hoyle and wickramasinghe The June 17, 1994 issue of Science did not ignore it. In fact, this conservative journal devoted almost an entire page to a paper presented by Yi-Jehng Kuan and Yanti Miao at the recent Minneapolis meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Students of L. Snyder, at the University of Illinois, Kuan and Miao reported that the amino acid glycine had been detected in a molecular cloud named Sagittarius B2. Glycine has only ten atoms and is the smallest of the 20 amino acids vital to life-as-we-know-it. The Science article supposed that this discovery of extraterrestrial glycine might reignite speculation that earth life might not be unique after all. (Travis, John; "Hints of First Amino Acid outside Solar System," Science, 264:1669, 1994.) Structure of the amino acid glycine What Science did not mention but New Scientist did is that F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe have long predicted that the molecules of life, as well as life itself, would be found in outer space. Now, after much ridicule, they are being vindicated. "It's been a long hard struggle," said Hoyle. Wickramasinghe remarked that the discovery was "no surprise at all." "He believes it is only a matter of time before other amino acids, together with nucleotide bases, the components of nucleic acids that ...
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