Bugs in Space
Offline 'Conan the Bacterium' can handle space travel
* From: NewsCore
* July 19, 2010 12:19PM
BRAZILIAN scientists discovered that a microbe dubbed "Conan the Bacterium" is so tough it could withstand space travel, leading them to suggest such organisms could have been the origin of life on Earth.
They subjected the bug, Deinococcus radiodurans, to powerful radiation, freezing temperatures and a vacuum chamber, all designed to simulate conditions found on meteorites and other rocks in space.
Such conditions would instantly destroy almost any known organism, but the D. radiodurans colonies proved capable not just of surviving but of regenerating when conditions returned to normal.
Researchers suggested such powers make the bug, or a similar organism, a potential candidate for spreading life between planets in the early days of the solar system.
D. radiodurans, which has a red, spherical shape, was discovered five decades ago after a can of corned beef went rotten despite having been sterilised by radiation. The durability of the microbe has only just been realised.
The most likely explanation for the germ's toughness is that each bug possesses four to 10 copies of its genome, rather than the usual single version. It also has a highly efficient repair system, so even if the DNA is ripped apart by radiation, bits can easily be
spliced together again.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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I have often wondered if we dumped our virus bacteria infested garbage on Mars or Europa if we would find life on those planets in the future. But mind you, finding the atoms that make up adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine should not be a shock if found elsewhere.
I don't want people reading this to jump the huge gap that we have been visited by little green men. All this discovery would mean is that carbon based life should be expected to be found elsewhere. It should not mean that there is evidence that human like ETs can overcome the time and distance of space travel. It is easier for an atom, or a collections of atoms to travel over long periods of time. It is absurd to think that we can build a ship that can travel, not only the speed of light, but faster than light millions of fold, to make space travel as practical as taking a cab across New York City.
It takes a ray of light 100,000 years to get across our galaxy. Get a grip folks. I do expect if we could find it, some sort of statistical probability of life considering the sheer number of stars in the universe and by proxy the sheer number of planets in each of those galaxies.
Whatever human like life might be out there would be subject to the same laws of science that confine us to our solar system.
In short. WE HAVE NOT BEEN VISITED BY LITTLE GREEN MEN. If anyone wants to conflate the "NO DUH" prospect of something carbon based to being the same as ET. Please, go pray to Allah or Yahweh or Jesus, if you are going to conflate that expected expectation to Star Trec bullshit.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Even so, I am a musician. Normal 0 7.8 磅 0 2 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
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So I can take the time to do the porn thing. It should not be too hard. Just set up a background of strings and possibly some horns at a fairly low tempo and then put a bit of the “waka waka” type stuff on top and I will have my porn thing.Normal
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Off hand, can you upload a wav file for the project? I am thinking that I could do the Ron Jeremy line “it's the plumber, I am here to fix your pipes” thing for a bit of spice. ;--)