Science about to prove the existence of life outside of our planet?

Originally posted by Jinni
Seriously - mankind has some -very- pressing problems and needs to be addressed before finding bacteria on other planets (and potentially risking mankind to new diseases). To put it into perspective how much money does your government invest in finding microbes on other planets compared with making your life easier here on earth (at a micro level such as car fuel, energy and power)?

Hmmm....

Perhaps the confirmation of life beyond our planet is the inspiration we need to overcome the difficulties we face in todays world.

Life?

We who pay attention will see that there is a plentitude of life, even in evironments that would be antithetical to common 'sense', right here on our own planet.

I'm talking about life that thrives on the deep ocean floor...WITHOUT oxygen, by the way! These are known as 'anerobic' life....because they do NOT need oxygen, in the way that WE do...

I would hope that those who 'Deny Ignorance'
will also take the time to read....to continue to 'Deny Ignorance'.......

Originally posted by Recouper

Perhaps the confirmation of life beyond our planet is the inspiration we need to overcome the difficulties we face in todays world.

Or, maybe we don't value life on this planet (in particular human life) anywhere near as much as we should, and proof of it existing elsewhere will cheapen it even further?

Conversely, if it is proved beyond any doubt that life cannot and does not exist anywhere apart from on Earth, would that add value to it and make us tread more carefully?

Thanks Guy's - Very understanding and accomodating.

And that nanobacteria stuff was very interesting as well, if nanobacteria does get proven that means another thing that nature/evolution has beaten human invention on us on ( Like Sonar, flight, Night Vision and I read somewhere that even the wheel was invented by a bacterium! Looks like we arent as smart as we think sometimes.

AND,

Perhaps the confirmation of life beyond our planet is the inspiration we need to overcome the difficulties we face in todays world.

I particulary liked this statement - I agree with it in principle, However I think Mattpryor also raised a interesting reply. In answer to him - Do you think we will value Earthlife Less if we find extraterrestial life? What are your views on this - lets say that we keep having this population explosion and need to colonise "earthlike" worlds to ensure our survival - and lets also asssume that we have the technology to get a significant population onto these hypothetical worlds - would "genetic-clensing" be acceptable in the not so distant future? I think its likely that this could be something we will face in the near future and maybe even threatened with it ourselves?








[edit on 6-11-2008 by oinkment]

reply to post by weedwhacker


You are correct, Life seems to flourish even in the most inhospitable places here on earth,places we would never have even thought to look for life, life in some form or another has managed to take root. This is why conventional thought of where to look for life outside our little rock floating in space has changed.

reply to post by mattpryor


I don't believe finding life off the earth "cheapens" life here. It's like saying finding life in Africa cheapens life in North America. This sounds more llike the egocentric world views held in the middle ages when the sun and planet were thought to revolve around the earth.

But I will go you one further: if life did not originate on earth and is floating around in interplanetary and interstellar space, when did it begin? The universe is 14-18 billion years old so yes it could have evolved from organic precursors. However what if life like bacteria is "artificial". Von Neumann described self-replicating machines years ago ( en.wikipedia.org... ) and bacteria seem to fit the bill perfectly, and they can mutate and evolve. I also remember reading an article in the 1980's where a group of Japanese scientists said that the genetic code of a virus they were studying, when placed in a 4x4 matrix looked like an artificial message!! Maybe it said "Made in Alpha Centuri" lol.