4 ms·
Are there more of these undetected/undetectable entities out there? E.g. are there more "life" like obelisks and similar out there in genome samples?
by yawnxyz 2y ago
Are there more of these undetected/undetectable entities out there?
E.g. are there more "life" like obelisks and similar out there in genome samples?
- ababaian 2y agoI should certainly hope so.
- ceejayoz 2y agoProbably. This is a good illustration of just how hard it may be to conclusively find life on other worlds; we don’t even know what exists here on Earth yet.
- aaroninsf 2y agoThis is basically the core plot device (and foregrounded assertion, for its ramifications) of a recent scifi book, which for spoiler reasons I rot13: Xvz Fgnayrl Ebovafba'f Nheben
- nyokodo 2y agoWhich book?
- light_hue_1 2y agoThe reason these things are so hard to find on Earth is because it's teeming with other life. If it wasn't and these things were isolated on Mars it would be relatively easy.
- ceejayoz 2y agoNope. Still tough. https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/evidence-of-martian-life-dealt-critical-blow/ https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/...
- light_hue_1 2y agoThat's not looking for life. It's looking for fossils.
- ceejayoz 2y agoWhich, physically in hand, still took years to determine they were naturally occurring rock. It’s hard.
- throwup238 2y agoProbably. There’s a whole category of organisms that can’t cultured in a lab or effectively studied called microbial dark matter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_dark_matter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_dark_matter These kinds of DNA and RNA studies are the only ones that can realistically pick up evidence of these organisms outside of an extraordinarily lucky electron microscope slide.
- ababaian 2y agoIf you want the real mind-trip, try to think about how little we know about detecting "life" that is not based on nucleic acids.
- hinkley 2y agoThere’s a biological detective story out there about someone figuring out how to culture the black soot near distilleries. This isn’t the version I read but it’s the same microbe: https://www.wanderingspiritsglobal.com/whisky-fungus-baudoinia-compniacensis/ https://www.wanderingspiritsglobal.com/whisky-fungus-baudoin... It doesn’t culture in agar. Unless you add alcohol to the Petri dish and then it does. Things like this are why I still have my fingers crossed that we will have one or more helicobacter pylori (the bacteria that causes 90% of ulcers) moments for intestinal ailments. These obelisks may turn out to be one of them, and understanding could lead to better treatments and prevention.
- casenmgreen 2y agoDon't know. They're undetected =-)