Comment of the Day: "Prometheus" Suggests DNA May Be a Constant in the Universe

 

           

 

"Imagine yourself to be a bio-molecular engineer somewhere at some time and place, and maybe not human…let’s just say of "advanced sentience”. And you were given a project to seed the galaxy or universe with life with sufficient robustness built in to maximize its chances of surviving on a wide range of planetary homes it might land on. One would analyze typical solar systems, determine the standard chemical profiles, find the least volatile solar zones (Goldilocks range) and proceed with molecular design.

One might determine that by accident, or if seeded, the available chemical elements in the selected thermodynamic stable zone self-assembles into a 3-d shape, the DNA helix, that one can add to, preserve, and by virtue of it’s being 3-d, maximize it’s information content by known theory linked to entropic-order principles.

"All of this so far is fine but, by introducing order and information coding, we now need an energy source; and so we design a series of Turing concept energy cycles that transform raw energy sources (wheat, meat, water) into electron fluxes that drive a central processing unit (brain=CPU) that controls muscles, heat exchange (for thermo stability), repair of muscles and cosmic-ray damages to DNA. And so on until, though not perfect because the system does have a tendency to degrade over time (death), we are ready to set free on the galactic solar winds and E/M streams little asteroid toy boats loaded with our project molecular systems, our DNA project, our babies. And in addition, we have added a cracker jack candy prize - deep within the DNA structure a rogue programmer has added his/her/? personal touch - an emergency pack of extra DNA information just to give a boost to repair or adaptiveness as our 'baby'travels along."

Resonanz

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Comments

[Matthew]

This theory is called directed panspermia, the idea that life arose somewhere in the universe naturally. Over time becoming a highly advanced civilization capable of spreading to other galaxies. Seeding the building blocks of life to the rest of the universe.

[radii]

Prometheus is so anti-intellectual and anti-science - and is simply a terrible movie - that I hope DailyGalaxy will consider pulling down this post and any reference to the film. Editor's Note: Radii, The film is popular culture --the zeitgeist. DNA/genome is a conceptual foundation the film. This is a riff on the science the film is built around. Lighten up!

[kristi276]

Is the seeds of life spread through the germination caused by the destruction of planets already bearing the fruit of life? Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. In the infinity of space and the infinity of matter, life reigns supreme over the span of eons. I don't believe in the "grand design" of life. We can not see the forest for the trees, or is it we can not see the trees for the forest? I believe that the seeds of life is floating in abundance throughout the universe, and like a seed floating in the atmosphere finds fertile ground and takes root; while some land on infertile ground and dies. As a seeds needs more than fertile ground for it to grow, so does the seeds of life. Life might have taken root on Mars, but did not have time to fully develop when the life giving properties diminished over time. The seeds of life may be lying dormant on Mars waiting for the right conditions for it to spring forth. Is the Goldilocks Zone a fixed or variable? Will Earth on day slip out of the Goldilocks Zone and not be able to support life? Will the future Earth be Mars, as the sun ages and heats up causing t he zone to move away from Earth towards Mars?

What one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away.

[ionutab]

I agree with @radii. I went to see Prometheus last night. It's like a fourteen year old wrote the script. I couldn't believe that they made such a mess from a good idea. After the movie ended and the lights lit up in the cinema I shouted: "And the main idea was: Don't trust women and robots."

[sac à main prada]

Nous vous remercions de nous souhaitant tous les moments de possibilités de paix, de clarté et de l'infini. Gardez à l'écriture et nous continuons à lire comme un blog très agréable et inspirante.

[vanbergen]

I think the main idea in the movie was simple and (therefore) brilliant. The interstellar agenda of seeding worlds and destroying life at the same scale is something that requires not just huge effort of the type we would perceive as conventional - it needs a tool of a higher magnitude - the self-assembling self-perpetuating fact of life itself. For whatever purpose - you can design a pattern that can find it's own way of achieving the set goal.

(The other issue - the "Why" is unrelated to this question, that's why I'm leaving it aside)

[resonanz]

Kristi276’s comment is much appreciated in suggesting the "Goldilocks Zone” (GZ) need not by any means be the end all requirement for life in the universe. As a sometime materials scientist, and having delved into comparative electron transport systems, I personally believe that life, if defined as basically a contained (boundaries, membranes, restrictive fields etc) charge transport messaging system. By this model, one can imagine “life” existing in a wide range of chemistries and material phases - solid, fluid (water, methane!, molten sulfur which at some temperature forms quasi-helical structures, ..) and perhaps gaseous and plasma…although as the material phase becomes more tenuous the problem of retaining a stable boundary becomes less likely, unless the “lifespan” of sentience becomes shorter. There are almost unlimited possible life forms that can be postulated from this extended definition of the “Goldilocks Zone", at least to the imagination. Also, even in solid rock the electron-hole defect pair exhibits a chemical recombination balance that is within a magnitude of water’s hydrogen ion/hydroxyl pairing.

[abercrombie]

Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" Suggests DNA May Be a Constant in the Universe --Richard ... to have a different way of converting energy than their cousins elsewhere in the world. ... (14 degrees Fahrenheit) one night, and spiked to 56° C (133° F) the next day. ... Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.) ...