It doesn't mean we can't get sick from it, I think we need to be very careful with extra terrestrial life.
Not to mention the minus 180 degrees Celsius.
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
#22It doesn't mean we can't get sick from it, I think we need to be very careful with extra terrestrial life.
According to Wikipedia, the surface of Titan is around -180 degrees C.
Do you expect a life form to exist in that environment but ALSO be able to flourish in the human body, a creature of a sort never seen on Titan, 200 degrees warmer and full of entirely different chemicals?
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#23The 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…
> but a "huge by (earth standards) cell" doesn't mean dog sized. Well, the smallest dog breeds have a mass on the same order as the largest cells on earth, so, yeah, "dog sized" is a pretty good standard for a "huge (by earth standards)" cell.
Such a large cell on earth is an 'outlier', not a 'standard'.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#24I'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…
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.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#25The 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…
If you're being picky please THINK before blurting. It says life could involve CELLS. Which is plural. Which points towards multi-cellular and NOT single-cellular organisms. Also look at definitions of cell. All of which imply cell as being a smaller unit of a LARGER whole. As for your utterly stupid question of why compare it to a cell: BECAUSE they are the basic units of which larger life forms are generally composed.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but a "huge by (earth standards) cell" doesn't mean dog sized. Well, the smallest dog breeds have a mass on the same order as the largest cells on earth, so, yeah, "dog sized" is a pretty good standard for a "huge (by earth standards)" cell.
Such a large cell on earth is an 'outlier', not a 'standard'.
> Such a large cell on earth is an 'outlier'
Indeed, specifically a huge one. Making it huge, by earth standards.
See how that works?
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#27Rarely have I wished so much for a downvote button on top-level posts.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#28That would make me very happy.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#29The 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 agree. I was thinking the exact same thing.
Re: Is There A Giant Life Form Lurking In Our Solar System? Possibly, Say Scientists
#30I 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.
I see where you're coming from, but I rather enjoyed the novelty of his style. I wouldn't necessarily want to read any more of it, but it wasn't all that bad.