Alien Bugs Discovered In Earth's Atmosphere

http://news.sky.com/story/1143906/alien-bugs-discovered-in-earths-atmosphere

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"Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here."

first the british try and take our land, now they try and take our heritage

Well that's certainly fascinating.

i'm skeptical. these things have DNA/RNA... surely alien life would be... well... alien?

probably good to be skeptical here for sure, but @kaini - we've found pyrimidine and purine (nucleobase shells) in meteorites before, so DNA in space might not be too far-fetched

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Pyrimidine and purine have yet to be detected in interstellar space, but they are seen in meteorites. These molecules are observed to be enriched in deuterium, proving they have an extraterrestrial origin. The origins of these molecules in not currently understood, and although they (and other N-bearing aromatic species) are expected to form in the stellar outflows of carbon stars. Thus, these aromatic species may be available to participate in the same types of chemistry that can modify other aromatic species like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Pyrimidine, like PAHs, is a relatively non-volatile compound, and it would be expected to freeze out into the ices that coat cold dust grains in dense interstellar clouds. The ices in dense interstellar clouds are dominated by the molecule H2O, but also contain many other species like methanol (CH3OH), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), formaldehyde (H2CO), and so on.

http://www.astrochem.org/sci/Nucleobases.php

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NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life.

Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the basic structure for uracil, part of a genetic code found in ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA is central to protein synthesis, but has many other roles.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/uracil.html

edit: also fuck yeah love me some space news, cheers JR

  On 9/19/2013 at 11:38 PM, kaini said:

i'm skeptical. these things have DNA/RNA... surely alien life would be... well... alien?

no!

we r thum!

Is that you Deloris?

Interesting!

Space bugs. So fucking IDM.

Sweet. Aliens are badass. I wonder if they'll bring alien disease.

I, for one, welcome our new bug overlords.

  On 9/19/2013 at 11:38 PM, kaini said:

i'm skeptical. these things have DNA/RNA... surely alien life would be... well... alien?

Their having RNA/DNA is only a problem if you presume that we originated on earth and (are therefore forced to conclude that) they developed RNA/DNA independent from us.

So when was this trip, exactly? I'm a bit skeptical about them dismissing volcanic eruption when we just had Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.

  On 9/20/2013 at 1:22 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 9/19/2013 at 11:38 PM, kaini said:

i'm skeptical. these things have DNA/RNA... surely alien life would be... well... alien?

 

Their having RNA/DNA is only a problem if you presume that we originated on earth and (are therefore forced to conclude that) they developed RNA/DNA independent from us.

 

i assumed most or all life in the universe would be based on DNA

> "yea so because there's no other way the "bugs" could have landed on our balloon, the only possible conclusion is they are from outer space."

-- science

The shape of this one in particular is just...

  On 9/20/2013 at 1:20 AM, chim said:

 

I, for one, welcome our new bug overlords.

rlol yes

ONE UNIVERSE, ONE LOVE, INNIT?

Cool story, but jesus fuckme, I would like to read the actual papers and not just some condensed blurb by some asshole on something this important. And apparently the Journal of Cosmology is either of questionable methodology/full of crackpots/a haven for free-thinking sciencepersons, depending on who you ask: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Cosmology

So there's that.

I hope this is true but I doubt it

Where's the journal publications? No sources are even given.

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The quality of peer review at the journal has been questioned.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The journal has also been accused of promoting fringe viewpoints and speculative viewpoints on astrobiology, astrophysics, and quantum physics. Skeptical blogger and biologist PZ Myers said of the journal "... it isn't a real science journal at all, but is the... website of a small group... obsessed with the idea of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life originated in outer space and simply rained down on Earth."^[4][10] The journal has responded that the paradigm "life on Earth came from Earth" is like a religious belief. ^[11]

lol

  On 9/20/2013 at 3:34 AM, manmower said:

 

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The quality of peer review at the journal has been questioned.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The journal has also been accused of promoting fringe viewpoints and speculative viewpoints on astrobiology, astrophysics, and quantum physics. Skeptical blogger and biologist PZ Myers said of the journal "... it isn't a real science journal at all, but is the... website of a small group... obsessed with the idea of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life originated in outer space and simply rained down on Earth."^[4][10] The journal has responded that the paradigm "life on Earth came from Earth" is like a religious belief. ^[11]

lol

 

kek

  On 9/19/2013 at 11:24 PM, Joyrex said:

http://news.sky.com/story/1143906/alien-bugs-discovered-in-earths-atmosphere

that... kind of looks like a won-ton =)

lol its prob not from space

  On 9/20/2013 at 4:15 AM, StephenG said:

 

  On 9/19/2013 at 11:24 PM, Joyrex said:

http://news.sky.com/story/1143906/alien-bugs-discovered-in-earths-atmosphere

 

that... kind of looks like a won-ton =)

 

or a tea bag...