life's building blocks found to be common throughout universe

[verklingen]

Humans and Aliens Might Share DNA Roots

By Brandon Keim
April 7, 2009

The building blocks of life may be more than merely common in the cosmos. Humans and aliens could share a common genetic foundation.

That’s the tantalizing implication of a pattern found in the formation of amino acids in meteorites, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and simulations of primordial Earth. The pattern appears to follow basic thermodynamic laws, applicable throughout the known universe.

"This may implicate a universal structure of the first genetic codes anywhere," said astrophysicist Ralph Pudritz of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

There are exactly 20 standard amino acids — complex molecules that combine to form proteins, which carry out instructions specified by RNA and DNA, its double-stranded and self-replicating descendant.

Ten were synthesized in the famous 1953 Miller-Urey experiments, which modeled conditions believed to exist in Earth’s early atmosphere and volcano-heated pools. Those 10 amino acids have also been found in meteorites, prompting debate over their role in sparking life on Earth and, perhaps, elsewhere.

Pudritz’s analysis, co-authored with McMaster University biophysicist Paul Higgs and published Monday on arXiv, doesn’t settle the former debate, but it does suggest that basic amino acids are even more common than thought, requiring little more than a relatively warm meteorite of sufficient size to form. And that’s just the start.

If the observed patterns of amino acid formation — simple acids require low levels of energy to coalesce, and complex acids need more energy — indeed follow thermodynamic laws, then the basic narrative of life’s emergence could be universal.

"Thermodynamics is fundamental," said Pudritz. "It must hold through all points of the universe. If you can show there are certain frequencies that fall in a natural way like this, there is an implied universality. It has to be tested, but it seems to make a lot of sense."

Pudritz and Higgs tabulated the types and frequencies of amino acids found in primordial Earth experiments, then correlated the results on a graph of temperature versus atmospheric pressure at which the acids likely formed.

The 10 amino acids synthesized in primordial Earth experiments tended to arise at relatively low temperatures and pressures, and are chemically simple. Other, more complex acids formed less frequently, and require more temperature and pressure. Their distribution follows a clear, possibly thermodynamic, curve.



"The most frequent amino acid that forms is the one that’s least-demanding, energetically. There’s less and less amino acids that require more energy to form. That’s very sensible, from a thermodynamic point of view," said Pudritz.

Internal conditions of meteorites are unknown, but some scientists believe that certain large meteorites are both warm and hydrated, making them roughly analogous to the relatively temperate environment of Earth’s youth.

"There’s a theory," said Pudritz, "that they could be made in the warm interiors of large-enough meteorites."

This is necessarily speculative, but it would explain why the 10 amino acids most common in primordial Earth experiments are also the most common acids found in meteorites.

Pudritz and Higgs speculate that these 10 common amino acids met the needs of the earliest replicating molecules, with other, rarer acids used by the nascent genetic code as they formed or arrived — a process called "stepwise evolution," culminating in the genes that gathered 3.6 billion years ago in a common ancestor of all complex life.

If simulations of interactions between these 10 acids indeed support molecules that can copy themselves, said Pudritz, then it’s possible that they could support an ur-genetic code on Earth and elsewhere.

"There’s a possible universality," he said, "for any code that would use amino acids."

Harvard University systems biologist Irene Chen, who specializes in the evolution of molecules, called the work
"interesting," but noted that "in the absence of some experimental backup, it’s generally difficult to know if this kind of analysis is a Panglossian argument."

Humans and Aliens Might Share DNA Roots | Wired Science | Wired.com

so basically, given the right conditions (which it turns out aren't hard to find) the molecules which make up amino acids are disposed by their very structure to combine into them. thus the universe is probably churning out the foundations of life in convenient, easily deliverable packages. constantly. sounds about right to me

[Mafoo]

i learned about that experiment this year in a bio foundations course. they basically set up a closed system with some soupy fluid that was supposed to mimic the early ocean. then they introduced a high energy spark, supposedly to mimic a lightning strike(lightning was common early in earths history because of the extreme volcanic activity) and then collected and analized the broth. it turned out that they produced a few amino acids completely randomly. pretty miraculous

[Center]

Wow...nice find.

It makes since that in a world in which everything is symbolic, life would find a way, or have concieved of a way beforehand (!), to ensure life could be developed in any 'place'.

I'm definately curious to learn more about their continued findings in the DNA field. I predict great innovation of human advancement can be made in that area.

[verklingen]

i learned about that experiment this year in a bio foundations course. they basically set up a closed system with some soupy fluid that was supposed to mimic the early ocean. then they introduced a high energy spark, supposedly to mimic a lightning strike(lightning was common early in earths history because of the extreme volcanic activity) and then collected and analized the broth. it turned out that they produced a few amino acids completely randomly. pretty miraculous

yeah man that's based on the miller-urey experiment: Miller?Urey experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

since the same amino acids created by those experiments are found in meteorites (which do not experience lightning), their development might require far less input than we previously supposed. these guys think they found the answer in thermodynamics. it seems all that's needed is a large asteroid containing the amino acids' constituent molecules. it's speculated that the molecules are brought together purely through the thermodynamic physics at play within the asteroid.

science rules!

[SpankyMcLankey]

ahahah whoa, I always had a feeling... did anyone see that digg article last week about how planets could theoretically be living? or at least the earth anyways. there's more and more shit that almost makes me want to believe in religions.

[Mafoo]

so wouldnt this kind of suggest that humans/ life on earth arose purely from 'chance' interactions between molecules?

[verklingen]

yup, the development of life appears to be hardwired into the physics of the universe

[FourtySecondRip]

didnt bill nye do an episode where he did that experiment

[The Rev]

Somewhere, in the distant heavens, an alien being is sitting down to type "UR A DOOSH" on AlienHooka.

All is well.



The Rev

[msicidron]

yup, the development of life appears to be hardwired into the physics of the universe

this says to me that consciousness is a truly beautiful and significant thing.

The Universe reaches a whole new level of being when it becomes conscious of itself.

[Canuck Wisdom]

thats what we are ^

[Lord X]

One step closer to the answer!

[msicidron]

thats what we are ^

Thats what i was saying

[Ego Tripping]

this says to me that consciousness is a truly beautiful and significant thing.

The Universe reaches a whole new level of being when it becomes conscious of itself.

I. THE INFINITE ONE = THE SOURCE = INTELLIGENT INFINITY

A. THE INFINITE ONE IS UNFOCUSED AND UNDIFFERENTIATED

QUESTION: Can you tell me the first known thing in creation?

RA: The first known thing in creation is infinity.

B. AWARENESS DAWNS

QUESTION: What is the next step?

RA: Infinity became aware.

If nobody here has read this material, get to it! It lays it all out.

Ra-section 2

[msicidron]

so interesting! Thanks ego

[hijabihippie]

Check out Spider and Jeanne Robinson's book "Stardancer" for a mind melting take on this...

[kamikazi89]

beats the hell out of Genesis

[msicidron]

THE TOOLS OF REASON = 3 BASIC DISTORTIONS OF THE ONE


THE 1ST DISTORTION = FREE WILL

QUESTION: The 1st distortion of intelligent infinity is free will. Can you give a definition of this distortion?

RA: In this distortion of the Law of One it is recognized that the Creator will know Itself (or experience Itself). (B2, 7) The primal distortion is free will. (B2, 8)

QUESTION: The Creator then grants total freedom of choice in the ways of knowing. Is this correct? (B2, 7)

RA: This is quite correct. (B2, 7)

QUESTION: Then all other distortions spring from this first distortion, is this correct?

RA: It is both correct and incorrect.

In your illusion of physical existence all experience springs from the Law of Free will or the Way of Confusion.



In another sense, which we are learning, the experiences are this distortion. (B2, 7)



II. THE 2ND DISTORTION = LOVE

A. THE FOCUSING OF FREE WILL YIELDS LOVE

RA: The 1st distortion, free will, finds a focus which is known to you as logos, the Creative Principle or love. This focus may be called the 2nd distortion. (B1, 148)

RA: The second distortion is the distortion of love. (B2, 7-8)

B. LOVE SEEKS TO KNOW ITSELF

RA: The distortion love is the great activator and primal co-Creator of various creations using intelligent infinity. (B2, 8)... Love uses Its intelligent energy to create a certain pattern of illusions or densities in order to satisfy Its own intelligent estimate of a method of knowing itself. (B2, 9)



III. THE 3RD DISTORTION = LIGHT

(NOTE: Light, or light energy, is transformative: it may, or may not, be connected to love)

RA: This intelligent energy thus creates a distortion known as Light. From these 3 distortions come many, many hierarchies of distortions each having its own paradoxes to be synthesized, no one being any more important than another. (B1, 148)



RA: The origin of all energy is the action of free will upon love. The nature of all energy is light, including the inner light which is the guiding star of the self. This is the true nature of all entities. (B3, 30)



RA: THE INNER LIGHT IS YOUR HEART OF BEING. ITS STRENGTH EQUALS YOUR STRENGTH OF WILL TO SEEK THE LIGHT. (B3, 46)



RA: A certain amount of awareness of the inner light is necessary to attract the in-streaming light upward spiraling from the south magnetic pole of being (the root chakra), (B3, 46)

[Ego Tripping]

Isn't it good shit? It really explains everything, if you can absorb it. They definitely have a unique way of relaying the information. Reads like a manual to a game or some kind of....simulator?

[verklingen]

manual to a game or some kind of....simulator?

fuck yes man, think about it. the entire human story has been a continuous revelation of enablement. each age has it's beliefs and it's stigmas, and the stigmas always end up coming on top! the only logical explanation is that we are ABSOLUTELY enabled: to create whatever reality it is we prefer. this might not be proved true anytime soon, but it is true that limiting social influences will continue to be debunked even as our insight into the pure physics of existence deepens. . . which in turn offers, if our shrewdness can muster it (always does), new faculties of control over new aspects of experience. incrementally or tomorrow, this revelation is forthcoming in absolute form.

just pay attention. . . mostly to you.