5 ms·
Lots of scientists have looked for evidence of multiple origins of life, but so far no evidence has turned up. Every organism found so far fits on a tree of li
by dzdt 7y ago
Lots of scientists have looked for evidence of multiple origins of life, but so far no evidence has turned up. Every organism found so far fits on a tree of life using a common set of genetic molecules.
It would be an amazing discovery to find a second tree of life though!
- mevile 7y agoSuch a thing would be outmatched in the competition for resources. It's probably much harder for new life to form when there's already existing life around to take whatever materials are required for life to exist. If life coming to be is already rare enough that we don't see any evidence of it elsewhere in the universe, how much more rare should one expect for it to be under these circumstances?
- ibeckermayer 7y agoYou don’t know that such a thing would be outcompeted for resources. For example, life may have evolved independently on opposite sides of the earth in quick succession — there would be no competition for resources
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoWhat if the solution-space is so constrained we can't tell the difference between new emergence and common genetic molecules.
- shitberg 7y agoI'd hazard an alternative hypothesis that other forms of life are so radically different at a chemical level, that we don't even recognize them as alive.
- lovemenot 7y agoIsn't chirality (twist direction) of DNA thought to be purely arbitrary, yet 100% consistent in all observed species? Why is opposite chirality DNA not a thing?
- ibeckermayer 7y agoI’ve independently had the same question. There are a lot of assumptions in our contemporary cannon that are unchecked (afaik, but open to being told I don’t know what I’m talking about since this is by no means my area of expertise). It may even be the case that this isn’t possible to know, at least given the evidence at hand. Theories should simply take note of this ambiguity, by qualifying with “if X is the case, that means theory Y is true”
- not_kurt_godel 7y ago> cannon Psst, I think you meant "canon" :)
- ibeckermayer 7y agoNa I meant the thing on pirate ships (you're right, thanks)