Origin of Life – Page 36

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Media and Journals Conflict Over Mars Life

January 5, 2005

Timed for the one-year anniversary of the Mars Exploration Rovers, PBS aired a NOVA program last night about Spirit and Opportunity, and the teams that landed them and operated them on Mars. As is common for popular programs about Mars exploration, NOVA suggested that evidence for past water found (especially by Opportunity at Meridiani Planum) […]

Dumb Ideas

Did Martians Win the War of the Worlds?

December 14, 2004

In the H.G. Wells version, the Martian invaders with their tripod machines and death rays, wreaking havoc on Earth, were defeated by Earth bacteria. The new scientific plot envisioned by scientists, reported on Space.com, is that the Martians had the bacteria, and invaded Earth with it to either conquer Earth life or spread it onto […]

Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design Evidence Convinces Atheist of Designer

December 9, 2004

According to an AP report on ABC News, a famous British atheist now believes in God based on scientific evidence. “At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation […]

Origin of Life

Did Life Begin as “Failed Mineralogy” on the Seafloor?

December 3, 2004

A geologist with a lot of bluff and bluster makes the origin of life sound easy, but gets nailed by direct questions.

Solar System

Mars Opportunity for Life Must Tolerate Salty Acid

December 3, 2004

The first slew of scientific papers from the Mars Exploration Rover mission appeared in Science Dec. 3,1 with the focus of interest on Opportunity’s evidence for past water at Meridiani, because Spirit found only “volcanic rock rubble and inorganic soils” in the presumed lakebed at Gusev Crater. Jeffrey Kargel (U.S. Geological Survey) sums up the […]

Origin of Life

Origin-of-Life Expert Jokes about Becoming a Creationist

November 5, 2004

Chemist admits problems in chemical evolution are so hard, he is tempted to become a creationist.

Origin of Life

Volcanic Gas Helps Link Up the Building Blocks of Life

October 8, 2004

A gas emitted by volcanoes, carbonyl sulfide (COS), enables amino acid molecules to form peptide bonds. That’s what long-time origin-of-life researcher Leslie Orgel and colleagues at Scripps Institute have found. The reaction is especially productive in the presence of metal ions that act as catalysts, and even better in the presence of oxidizing agents. Moreover, […]

Cosmology

PBS Airs Another Evolution Series: Origins

September 29, 2004

PBS NOVA aired its latest installment on evolution, a 4-hour miniseries entitled Origins, on September 28 and 29. The website hype describes it as follows: Has the universe always existed? How did it become a place that could harbor life? What was the birth of our planet like? Are we alone, or are there alien […]

Origin of Life

Pop Goes the Fatbubble Theory for the Origin of Life

September 3, 2004

This weird theory pops faster than the bubbles it describes as our ancestors.

Origin of Life

A Martian Crust: Was It Alive?

August 9, 2004

David McKay, the father of the Martian meteorite that started feverish debates about life on Mars in 1996, is at it again. Now he thinks a mat of crusty soil was made by microbes, according to Space.Com. In spite of the salty, acidic soil (see 08/06/04 headline), Gilbert Levin, also interviewed by Space.Com, […]

Cell Biology

Cell Nucleus Complexity Baffles Evolutionists

August 6, 2004

In her inimitable way, Science reporter Elizabeth Pennisi has once again portrayed a scientific controversy undergoing active ferment. This time it’s about the evolutionary origin of cell nuclei, which she terms “specialized, DNA-filled command centers.”1 At the conclusion, she gives prominence to a “provocative, but circumstantial and controversial” suggestion that viruses taught cells how to […]

Astronomy

Tau Ceti a Star for Life to Avoid

July 6, 2004

Tau Ceti, a star with a dust disk astronomers had hoped might be an example of a planetary system under construction, is more like a war zone. A press release from the Royal Observatory calls it “Asteroid Alley – an Inhospitable Neighbor.” Using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, the astronomers detected 10 times […]

Origin of Life

Mystery of the Left-Handed Proteins: Solved?

June 21, 2004

Some molecules come in left- and right-handed forms that are mirror images of each other. All biological proteins are composed of only left-handed amino acids. How this could have come about in a primordial soup has long been a puzzle to origin-of-life researchers, since both L (levo, left-handed) and D (dextro, right-handed) forms react indiscriminately. […]

Astronomy

Young Planet Around Young Star Claimed

May 28, 2004

A star estimated to be one million years old already has a planet in orbit around it, the Spitzer Space Telescope (Hubble’s counterpart for infrared astronomy) has found. Astrobiology Magazine says this challenges old theories. Alan Boss (Carnegie Institute) thinks this supports his disk-instability model for planetary formation, in which gas giants can form quickly, […]

Darwin and Evolution

Origin-of-Life Researcher Leslie Orgel Interviewed

May 5, 2004

The May 4 issue of Current Biology1 contains an interview with organic chemist Leslie Orgel of the Salk Institute, who in 1974 published the book The Origin of Life on Earth with Stanley Miller of spark-discharge fame (see 05/02/2003 and 10/31/2002 headlines). He considers his biggest mistake not thinking of the RNA World scenario first […]

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