Hi All;
Intrepid, undaunted cub reporter (CraigS) dares once again, to publish his perspectives on this episode.
For what its worth, on this hyper-controversial-at-IIS series, here we go ...
Actually, sorry to let you down folks, I couldn’t find any factual issues/flaws in this episode. Most of what was presented, is pure mainstream science’s interpretations on the topic of exo-life.
I actually think they did a good job on presenting the main arguments underpinning exploration of the Solar System for exo-life.
But there is a paradox left for us right at the end, which I don’t believe they are aware of. The argument goes:
Extreme environments: life is found on
Earth in extreme environments. Life can
exist, and flourish in such environments;
Water: is correlated with wherever life is found on
Earth;
Mars: Mars is dry, but geological formations seem to imply large volumes of liquid water have existed there in the past. Methane, (a key indicator of life metabolism), perhaps generated by archaea bacteria, is detected, and seems to be seasonally dependent. Robotic probes have found Gypsum crystals, known to require liquid water for formation, on
Earth. (Note: there are many ‘flavours’ of methane, many of which are
not connected with life, folks.
This post encapsulates some of this aspect.
This thread has more).
Europa: May have large liquid water oceans, (twice as much as Earth’s) and have red ‘stripes’, which may represent life metabolic by-products;
Richard Hoover makes an appearance. (Check out the link for more discussions on this guy’s research, if interested). He shows life can exist in ice.
Ok .. so the inference is, that there may well be bacterial life forms elsewhere in the Solar System, but Cox concludes there’ll be no
civilisations. This is what makes us ‘special’ and for him, makes this the biggest ‘Wonder of the Solar System’.
So, the paradox ?
If civilisations make Earth ‘special’ then why are we using Earth and its environments, as our guide for inferring the existence of exo-life ? (Eg: in the Solar System).
Answer: (i) Because we have nothing else to go on. (Fair enough .. but remember that fact), and (ii) the Laws of Physics operate everywhere, not just on Earth, (fair enough, also).
None of the evidence cited in the episode tackles the question of the
Origin of Life. My view is that there is a
huge leap of faith required, (with totally unknown steps in the middle), in making the connection between the fundamental Laws of Physics and Chemistry and the Emergence of Life. The
correlation of the presence of water with life, works on Earth, but what of the high chances that life simply follows water on Earth, because it needs it to survive ?
The
Emergence of Life is a completely different discussion, not dealt with in the entire series. I think that SBS, next week on Tuesday at 8:30pm, (same time as ‘Wonders’ was), is a great place for folks, interested in continuing discussions this topic, to check out.
The relationships between Physics, Chemistry and the emergence of life, is a total unknown for us. We are only now developing the tools, which may help us to better understand the science behind how complex life forms behave.
Perhaps the way they behave, is intimately associated with how they originated - it appears to me, that there is a closer relationship between Chaotic and Complex Systems physics, and the Emergence of Life, than between Classical Physics, (like what Cox has presented), and its emergence.
Basing our thinking entirely upon what we know about life on Earth, seems to result in us swamping our thoughts and completely forgetting about what we
know that we don’t know .. which is related to the mysterious connections between how self-organising order, emerges from chaos.
Hope that makes sense .. if it doesn't, I recommend we start a new thread about the show on SBS next week, which is about Chaos Theory and Fractals an continue discussions there.
My 2 cents worth. Comments welcome.

Cheers