"Swirling clouds of dust in space could harbour something akin to life"

Now this is interesting. This is an article in physicsworld.com.

Here are a couple quotes:

"Swirling clouds of dust in space could harbour something akin to life -- according to computer simulations done by physicists in Russia, Germany and Australia. The simulations suggest that under certain conditions, dust particles could join together to form double-helix structures similar to DNA and even divide to create two identical copies of the same structure. Although the simulated dust is inorganic and so does not contain the carbon-based molecules found in all life on Earth, the researchers believe that their results hint at the possibility that inorganic life could exist elsewhere in the universe."

"While many scientists would balk at calling such structures life – if they indeed exist in the first place -- Tsytovich has no doubt. “These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify as candidates for inorganic living matter,” he said. “They are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve”. The team has also suggested that such inorganic life could have been a precursor to organic life here on Earth. "

I find this very interesting.

Link:

physicsworld.com...