Eugen Leitl
Tue, 04 Mar 2003 14:15:28 -0800
On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, Robert J. Bradbury wrote: > Making this argument (seriously) requires a lot of hand-waving. That is > the point of much of my discussion about forms of "life". We can't > assume RNA, DNA or even anything close to those molecules without > being very Earth-centric.
We have intensive material transport in the inner solar system (shortest transfer time Mars->Earth 6 months, longest about 20 MYrs, inside of a piece of rock never going over 40 deg C (limits of the method, it could be lower)), which implies crosscontamination in the geological present. If we go back GYrs, the crosscontamination rate would be considerably higher, even though assymetric due to Jupiter & Co. It's one big petri dish. If there's life, it's closely related. If it isn't, it's a giant data blip that life emerges rather effortlessly, and that crosscontamination is way harder than we think despite ample material transport. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/