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Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

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Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#31

Post by Articulate »

anigbrowl wrote: post #10

I feel like I've been trapped in the corner at a cocktail party by someone who insists on showing me bad drawings on a cocktail napkin. This guy's writing style is so annoying that I couldn't even make it to the end of the article. Attempting to parse this has left me feeling slightly dumber than 5 minutes ago.

Well depending on your background, & education it may have felt dumbed down but I have a lot of respect for Robert Krulwhich his RadioLab co-host won a McArthur "genius" award, and they have done (in my opinion) an excellent job of bringing science alive for people that either don't have the aptitude or didn't cross paths with the type of people that can inspire you to learn more about the universe.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#32

Post by Articulate »

Articulate wrote: post #31
anigbrowl wrote: post #10

I feel like I've been trapped in the corner at a cocktail party by someone who insists on showing me bad drawings on a cocktail napkin. This guy's writing style is so annoying that I couldn't even make it to the end of the article. Attempting to parse this has left me feeling slightly dumber than 5 minutes ago.

Well depending on your background, & education it may have felt dumbed down but I have a lot of respect for Robert Krulwhich his RadioLab co-host won a McArthur "genius" award, and they have done (in my opinion) an excellent job of bringing science alive for people that either don't have the aptitude or didn't cross paths with the type of people that can inspire you to learn more about the universe.

This commencement speech that he gave had a major impact on me http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2008/jul/29/tell...

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#33

Post by pasquinelli »

dm2 wrote: post #24
rodly wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did take us a long time to get here though. Luckily things build on each other and we're good at patterns.

A relatively long time compared to our day to day lives. Is it possible for other organisms to perceive time differently than we do or is time pretty much fixed? Also, I'd be willing to bet that our sex drive had a decent role in evolution. Basically be strong, smart, and acquire stuff so we can put our dicks into pretty females.

oh, interesting. so women have no sex drive? their evolutionary imperative is to be pretty and get dicks stuck in them?

fascinating. tell me more.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#34

Post by pasquinelli »

joshuahedlund wrote: post #6
rgbrenner wrote: post #5

The entire article is based on this sentence "Thus, life on Titan could involve huge (by Earth standards) and very slowly metabolizing cells, in which case biomass densities would be higher than calculated above." which the author interprets as "a life form in our solar system that's not a puny, dumb little thing, but a huge dumb thing. Like dog-sized. Or maybe Volkswagen-sized." I'm sorry.. but a "huge by (earth sta…

Yeah with "giant" and "lurking" I was hoping for hints of a planet-sized creature existing in dark matter or some interdimensional plane or extreme wavelength or something. Title is a bit link-baity.

i imagined space whales eating asteroids.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#35

Post by img »

dm2 wrote: post #18

I'm still having a hard time contemplating the fact that WE exist. Sitting in front of our flat monitors with access to nearly all information which is stored all around planet Earth. Phones that connect us to billions of people. Brains large enough to hypothesize the creation of the universe. We can create rockets that send probes to other planets and even the edge of our solar system. We regularly travel around in…

Reminds me of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw

(Only click if you're SURE you have 6 minutes to kill)

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#36

Post by jostmey »

Evolution.

It is why native alien life is unlikely to exist in our own solar system. You see, once life gets started, this process we call evolution takes place. Life takes on a myriad of complex forms. It covers the planet, gradually adapting to survive and thrive on nearly every patch of land. And behold, the planet is transformed.

There is only one planet in our solar system where this has happened. If life had started on some other rock in our solar system, it too would be visibly infested with lifeforms.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#37

Post by lutusp »

Why do articles like this always overlook the key scientific and historical issues?

If there's life on Europa, and if it is not based on DNA, that would mean Europan life evolved along a separate path from ours. That would lend support to the idea that life is common in the universe.

If Europa's hypothetical life was based on DNA, it would lend support to the "panspermia" idea, because it's hard to imagine how Earth's life could get to Europa, implying that Earth's life, and Europa's life, both arose somewhere else and traveled to separate destinations.

There are several other possibilities, none of which are discussed in the article.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#38

Post by GuiA »

dm2 wrote: post #18

I'm still having a hard time contemplating the fact that WE exist. Sitting in front of our flat monitors with access to nearly all information which is stored all around planet Earth. Phones that connect us to billions of people. Brains large enough to hypothesize the creation of the universe. We can create rockets that send probes to other planets and even the edge of our solar system. We regularly travel around in…

> WTF. [0]

Did you forget a footnote? :)

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#39

Post by jessaustin »

dm2 wrote: post #24
rodly wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did take us a long time to get here though. Luckily things build on each other and we're good at patterns.

A relatively long time compared to our day to day lives. Is it possible for other organisms to perceive time differently than we do or is time pretty much fixed? Also, I'd be willing to bet that our sex drive had a decent role in evolution. Basically be strong, smart, and acquire stuff so we can put our dicks into pretty females.

I think "pasquinelli" makes a good point about how male-normative this comment is, but also I think "pasquinelli" might be hell-banned.

Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists

#40

Post by tghw »

jostmey wrote: post #36

Evolution. It is why native alien life is unlikely to exist in our own solar system. You see, once life gets started, this process we call evolution takes place. Life takes on a myriad of complex forms. It covers the planet, gradually adapting to survive and thrive on nearly every patch of land. And behold, the planet is transformed. There is only one planet in our solar system where this has happened. If life had st…

Not necessarily. Evolution does not mean improvement, just adaptation. Unless there's some sort of biological pressure, such as a predator or an environmental risk, change won't happen or will happen much more slowly.

The time scale is also important. In very cold environments, such as the ones described, everything happens at a much slower pace. Consider it this way: heat is a proxy for energy (technically it is energy, but it's not all the energy). Energy is required for change. Very cold environments mean less energy, which means less change over the same time period.

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