I’ve mentioned in “Then Next Great Awakening” series on this blog (tab at the top) that life scientists are so far from figuring out a way to explain the origin of life on earth that they are looking to E.T. as an explanation. Now there’s a new book out called Comets and the Origin of Life by Janaki Wickramasinghe, Chandra Wickramasinghe and William Napier. A reviewer said:
STEP by step, the case for an extraterrestrial origin of life has got stronger.
TRANSLATION: THE CASE FOR THE SPONTANEOUS ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH IS SO WEAK AS TO BE LAUGHABLE… AND THE BIG BRAINS CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER THAN COMETS BRINGING IT TO EARTH, IN SOME KIND OF “DNA EX MACHINA.”
But though the case for planetary panspermia – the idea that micro-organisms transfer between planets – is now widely accepted, interstellar panspermia remains controversial.
WELL, OF COURSE. EVERYONE RAISE YOUR HAND WHO THINKS THAT CELLS SURVIVED FOR TENS OR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS (MAYBE MILLIONS?) THROUGH INTERSTELLAR SPACE, VACUUM, COSMIC RAYS, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT. If you think enough survived to seed life on earth in sufficient volume to survive incredibly hostile early earth conditions, completely unlike the comet, raise TWO hands. Then smack yourself in the head with one of them.
A key element in the scheme, promoted by Chandra Wickramasinghe and the late Fred Hoyle, are comets, the bodies in which the desiccated bacteria of interstellar space are claimed to come to life before being ferried to planetary surfaces. The recent discovery of amino acids and clays in comets, which could have formed only if comets once had liquid-water interiors, bolsters the case for interstellar panspermia.
SURE IT DOES. ABOUT LIKE THE DISCOVERY THAT MARS HAD VISIBLE LINES BOLSTERED THE CASE FOR MARTIAN “CANALS”.
Yet most scientists require more evidence.
HAPPY TO HEAR IT.
I think this entire discussion is best characterized as “materialism of the gaps.”
October 12th, 2009 10:26 am
You mean there are no canals………………?
October 12th, 2009 5:20 pm
“DNA ex machina!” Thanks for my good laugh for the day.