In The News: Viruses, Life & Lunar Landers

[CraigS]

In the News and whilst not strictly Astronomy but related to the origins of life (maybe):

"Tracking viruses back in time"
http://www.physorg.com/news203001039.html



and here's the Astronomy related bit ...



Chuckle .. chuckle ..
:)
Cheers

[mjc]

I think the post is relevant (and hope this post is also). If we have difficulty identifying signatures of viruses from early Earth evolution then how can we find them on Mars - for example (but, then again, aren't viruses dependent on cellalar organisms to exist - which might be easier to identify?)

Maybe deviating here, some bacteria are really quite resiliant. Bacteria from the cliffs of a village called Beer (hmmm... b e e r !) on the South Coast of England survived on the outside of the ISS for 533 days
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11039206

And prior to that when Apollo 12 recovered the camera of Surveyor 3 it was found that it was contaminated on Earth prior to being sent to the moon and the bacteria, when rehydrated, was alive (was on the Moon for nearly three years).

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1998/ast01sep98_1/

The Bacteriophage T4 is really fascinating - an animation of one infecting a bacterium is well worth watching here:-

http://www.seyet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=204

The last one isn't really astronomy related except for the incredible similarity to a man-made probe landing on a moon etc. It's hard to believe that this little virus isn't technically alive (if one requires metabolism) - but is a superb little machine regardless.

With respect to the question of whether viruses are alive - try finding a universal or widely accepted definition. It's a challenge.

Mark C.

[CraigS]

Hey Mark;



The Intelligent Design (ID) folk are going to have a field day on this one !
Why do I do this to myself, I ask ???? I must be a masochist !!

:shrug: :confused2: :help:

Oh well .. the resulting science will be really interesting to see develop.
I read somewhere that human DNA contains quite a few dormant viruses.
How the ancient viruses got there (and remained) was the subject of that article.

Cheers

[mjc]

Craig - when I loooked at that I had the same thought. I can understand why ID is such a tempting / convenient explanation of things for some people.

However, sometime ago I got to think about the language of describing evolution and I concluded that it is better to think in terms of "what does this do" rather than "what is this for". This technique tends to keep the mind on the correct perspective. This is very subtle - but it works for me - its so easy with everyday speak to talk about what things are for - and that implies intention of design.

Mark C.

[CraigS]

Good to have you 'round Mark !!

We could do with some more of this type of thinking.
(The conversations would be much less arduous)...

Cheers