51–60 of 110 posts
It's interesting to think of space rocks like asteroids in the manner of pollen, or pollination in how organic molecules spread around in the solar system. :D https://gardens.si.edu/gardens/pollinator-garden/why-what-wh... .
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> They didn't detect RNA which would be extraordinary. Correct, and they don't say that. They found an RNA compound. Uracil, one of the molecules that is found in RNA. Not sure of the purpose of this comment to regurgitate what's found in the article itself, which goes into greater detail.
As someone who reads the comments more than the articles, I always appreciate when this kind of clarification is in the comments. It's one of the best parts of HN.
They didn't detect RNA which would be extraordinary. What they detected is Uracil, one of the molecules that is found in RNA. They didn't found any other nucleotides. " Other DNA/RNA nucleobases were not positively identified in both the A0106 and C0107 samples. This does not necessarily exclude a possibility that those nucleobases are present in the Ryugu samples, but just they may be below the detection limit under…
They didn't detect RNA which would be extraordinary. What they detected is Uracil, one of the molecules that is found in RNA. They didn't found any other nucleotides. " Other DNA/RNA nucleobases were not positively identified in both the A0106 and C0107 samples. This does not necessarily exclude a possibility that those nucleobases are present in the Ryugu samples, but just they may be below the detection limit under…
> They didn't detect RNA which would be extraordinary. Correct, and they don't say that. They found an RNA compound. Uracil, one of the molecules that is found in RNA. Not sure of the purpose of this comment to regurgitate what's found in the article itself, which goes into greater detail.
RNA is a compound, and Uracil is also a compound. Thus you cannot tell from just the words "RNA compound" whether they mean a compound that is RNA or a compound that is part of RNA.
I wonder if this supports the RNA World life origin hypothesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world , because Uracil doesn't occur in DNA.
It's my understanding that the RNA world hypothesis is pretty much widely accepted these days anyway. The open question is more how you get to the RNA world in the first place. The RNA hypothesis as such is more an hypothesis of what preceded life based on DNA and protein, and less so a theory of the origin of life from non-life per se. The two main camps today seem to be "metabolism first" with people like Nick Lane…
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> For one, the spacecraft (or the empty capsules) could have been pre-contaminated before their launch. I had a really interesting discussion with someone who oversaw decontamination protocols and preparations for various satellites, including the JWST. The protocols they use to prep satellites for these types of missions are beyond stringent, and the chemicals they use are exotic as all hell. All this to say, contam…
Remember the faster than light neutrinos that turned out to be a loose cable? I doubt they "just forgot", but being perfect is more difficult than making a mistake somewhere in the process. Before they publish I would hope they Quadruple checked for every source of possible contamination. Instead of saying we did it right so obviously nothing went wrong.
Could the paper's conclusions be incorrect? Yes, I think everyone--the authors included--will agree that "something could have gone wrong." But pointing out that "something could have gone wrong" is probably not a new idea to most readers.
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Organic doesn't necessarily imply living.
It actually does: "Organic: relating to or derived from living matter"
Chemists consider any covalent compound involving carbon that isn't only carbon to be "organic".
Normal usage is what you wrote.
Alternative but widespread usage is "agricultural products made without synthesized fertilizers and pesticides".
Oh, and business jargon uses organic to mean "natural market growth or internally developed capabilities", as opposed to buying the growth or capability.
And in military usage, organic means "a permanently assigned assisting unit", so that routine vehicle maintenance, for example, is handled by people who travel with the vehicle.
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Organic doesn't necessarily imply living.
It actually does: "Organic: relating to or derived from living matter"
Nowadays, 'organic' refers to chemicals with a majority (?) carbon content. It gets a little tricky for things like diamond and graphene (both materials) or for compounds that have a lot of heteroatoms.
Oddly enough, another nucleotide base (adenine) is exactly 50:50 C:N and has been proved to be synthesised from just HCN. So is it 'half'organic' :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Organic doesn't necessarily imply living.
It actually does: "Organic: relating to or derived from living matter"
Organic compound simply means that there are carbon-hydrogen bonds or carbon-carbon bonds in a compound.
The view that this requires "life" was a legitimate theory back in 1800s and was disproved in the late 1820s. (See the wiki link for more details)