32 replies to this topic

[Bikerman]

mahesh2k, on 28 October 2010 - 10:10 AM, said:

Agree. Looking at the flaws in design you mentioned the only defense intelligent design people have is this - single cell life dropped on this planet to let it evolve on it's own which is the reason behind these flaws. But then their argument of guided evolution or intelligent species monitoring or other religious blabbery will be trashed.

On sidenote, what if we monitor the abiogenesis on other planets where there is possibility of life. I mean if we interfere in the process of evolution then results are likely to be different. For example, species adapting to natural environment and artificial environment will give different results.

Indeed they will. It would depend how 'active' the monitoring was. Any interference with the environment would be likely to interfere with the course of evolution and/or abiogenesis.

[mahesh2k]

Bikerman, on 28 October 2010 - 10:56 AM, said:

Indeed they will. It would depend how 'active' the monitoring was. Any interference with the environment would be likely to interfere with the course of evolution and/or abiogenesis.

By the way do you have any idea why we always make assumption that alien life has to be carbon based life ? i mean though we have no seen any other lifeform than carbon based but why it has to be carbon life form in order to be recognized as life from us ?. I came across many people who talk about only carbon based lifeform outside this solar system.

[Bikerman]

mahesh2k, on 28 October 2010 - 02:57 PM, said:

By the way do you have any idea why we always make assumption that alien life has to be carbon based life ? i mean though we have no seen any other lifeform than carbon based but why it has to be carbon life form in order to be recognized as life from us ?. I came across many people who talk about only carbon based lifeform outside this solar system.

Yes. Life requires long-chain molecules as far as we can tell. The only common elements that can form such molecules easilty are carbon and silicon. Silicon life would be extremely different and there are problems with the chemistry, so carbon is by far the best bet.

[mahesh2k]

Bikerman, on 28 October 2010 - 09:08 PM, said:

Yes. Life requires long-chain molecules as far as we can tell. The only common elements that can form such molecules easilty are carbon and silicon. Silicon life would be extremely different and there are problems with the chemistry, so carbon is by far the best bet.

I never thought silicon has that potential. I guess i need to keep myself updated with evolution in order to get this stuff. Which source you use to keep yourself updated with evolution, biology ? i prefer berkeley's site or university journals but that rarely helps when it comes to looking up new research.

[Iniyila]

i think evidence of existence of aliens like ufos are just paranormal phenomena. A paranormal phenomena means that it's something unknown to us but why it's unknown? my answer to this question is that science isn't progressed enough to find out how this phenomenas happen. So is the existence of aliens a fact? i think due to lack of the knowledge there is no logical answer to this however scientist are trying to answer this question by exploring other planets. but i think there is problem with the way they have chosen to answer this question. they are trying to prove that there is life in other planets (as they are trying to find oxygen and water in other planets) but what if the aliens () doesn't need water or oxygen for living ? when something is completely unknown you can't specify aspects of it. so i don't think we find the answer so soon an till then i will say it's a fiction.

[mahesh2k]

Iniyila, on 30 October 2010 - 09:14 AM, said:

i think evidence of existence of aliens like ufos are just paranormal phenomena. A paranormal phenomena means that it's something unknown to us but why it's unknown? my answer to this question is that science isn't progressed enough to find out how this phenomenas happen. So is the existence of aliens a fact? i think due to lack of the knowledge there is no logical answer to this however scientist are trying to answer this question by exploring other planets. but i think there is problem with the way they have chosen to answer this question. they are trying to prove that there is life in other planets (as they are trying to find oxygen and water in other planets) but what if the aliens () doesn't need water or oxygen for living ? when something is completely unknown you can't specify aspects of it. so i don't think we find the answer so soon an till then i will say it's a fiction.

This is what we are discussing right now. That aliens could be different but we area assuming as per our current knowledge that life that begins right now is from carbon. So there has to be some point for typical life on planets. and this is the way we assume aliens being similar to us or drinking water or breathing. Ofcourse it's fiction but the way we think in this thread is better than UFO conspiracies and creationism pun.

[Bikerman]

mahesh2k, on 29 October 2010 - 09:19 AM, said:

I never thought silicon has that potential. I guess i need to keep myself updated with evolution in order to get this stuff. Which source you use to keep yourself updated with evolution, biology ? i prefer berkeley's site or university journals but that rarely helps when it comes to looking up new research.

Mainly my own forum - ScienceFile. It's one I help manage and moderate and it is designed mainly for scientists or people interested in science. We have quite a few biologists so if I want to research something I normally start with a question there.
If I want to consult the literature then I used to go to the journal concerned but I recently came across a nice webservice called Mendeley which indexes most of the papers I would be interested in.

[mahesh2k]

Bikerman, on 30 October 2010 - 09:12 PM, said:

Mainly my own forum - ScienceFile. It's one I help manage and moderate and it is designed mainly for scientists or people interested in science. We have quite a few biologists so if I want to research something I normally start with a question there.
If I want to consult the literature then I used to go to the journal concerned but I recently came across a nice webservice called Mendeley which indexes most of the papers I would be interested in.

Thanks for posting the links. Good to hear that you have some good bilogist in your community. I'll keep tabs at this sites from now on. Have to check mendeley now, i think this one will help me as well. I was in search of such services. Thanks for posting the link.

Edited by mahesh2k, 31 October 2010 - 07:40 AM.