Quote:
Originally Posted by doug mc
Has anyone run the experiment and observed the formation of self duplicating living cells from their chemical precursors? Seems we are jumping the gun here on what has been unobservable so unrepeatable. There looks like an enormous amount of scientific looking fiction out there on this subject. This will get some of you excited. So to answer the original question. Likely not.
|
Hi Doug
Running an experiment like you suggest has no bearing on hunting for life elsewhere.
Either way we need to find it.
Certainly we will be able to create life in the lab at some point as it certainly seems that life is no more than just a step in the chemical process.
It will prove not to be a big deal....and we will get to understand exactly how life is created in much the same way that we now understand how life developed via the now well understood process of evolution.
And as with everything science will eventually give us the answer...that is why science is so dependable as it provided real answers to real questions.
And if we could complete the experiment and sucessfully create life we really would still need to look for life elsewhere I expect ...just to be certain...and that is scientific because science needs observation to support hypothisis and the model born from the combination of the two.
I dont know what you mean by "scientific fiction" unless you refer to journalistic speculation, as the actual science, you see, is always without exception 100% correct. ..a scientific theory or model must be 100% correct and it really is ...as a scientific theory must make testable predictions and of course when the testable prediction is observed the theory is proved 100% correct...and so please dont confuse the chatter of journalists or other unqualified folk as to what science says or does not say as to do so leaves one missing the fact that science never deals in fiction.
Personally I would be surprised if a decent search for life within our Solar System failed to find life.
I think more should be done but I suspect there may be a group of folk in the USA who believe life is confinded to our Earth and so perhaps the importance of looking for life is downplayed for political reasons.
Really nothing could be more important than the hunt for life on other planents or moons in our Solar System.
However we must look and confirm life is not confinned to Earth and that the universe exists for much more life than just humans.
Alex