Post by Rick NelsonThe other question is over what ages have the Earth meteorites been
ejected to Mar?
Surely the greatest numbers would have to coincide with a period of
heavy bombardment. Natural forces on the surface of the Earth are very
unlikely to have enough energy to throw something into interplanetary space.
Incoming asteroids on the other hand are quite energetic enough. This
limits the periods to specific times- maybe a dozen such windows of
opportunity during the course of history, if we are generous in our
estimates.
Post by Rick NelsonMost have to be during a very life-bearing epoch of
Earth's history IMHO for life to "take" on Mars from Earth.
And as some people have pointed out in other discussions similar to this
one, there is a serious limit to the size and hardiness of such organisms
that hith a ride. We aren't going to see anything much more complex than a
bacterium or a spore. Complex, multicellular organisms tend to be more
fragile than single celled organisms. Of course, this is a trade-off since
complex organisms can judge the envirnonment and move away when things get
rough far more effectively than most bacteria.
But long, difficult journeys lasting millions of years with extremes of
vacuum and temperature are far more easily coped with by spores and encysted
bacteria than by goldfish or pine trees. We already know that some seeds
can be dormant for thousands of years, and some bacteria appear able to
remain frozen for tens of thousands of years, and there is evidence that
some halophiles (bacteria which can survive in very salty environments) can
last for millions of years if they dry out inside a forming salt crystal.
Post by Rick NelsonI think
life began on Mars and was ejected to Earth several times. I also think
we are constantly rained down on with space primordial bacteria whose
DNA microstrands are always being incorporated into our genome by the
Earth bacteria that infect us (and share DNA between one another - even
with space bacteria) - and so we evolve as humans (even though I could
make a pretty good argument for the de-evolution of most of humankind..)
It may well be that life started on Mars before it did on Earth, but if
it started on both worlds, then we cannot assume that the genetic material
from both worlds is identical. There is no single genetic code- the
mitochondria inside your cells have a slightly different version of the
genetic code that is not fully compatible with the cellular genetic code.
Instead, it shows common origins. It is like a dialect of a main language.
Since there are at least two genetic codes here on Earth (although they
are very similar), it stands to reason that life on an entirely different
world could well have a completely incompatible genetic code. Such a
finding would be a strong indicator that we had located alien life forms.
But that is simply the tip of the iceberg.
In the two variations of genetic code here on Earth, the same chemicals
and same base pairs are used. There are many millions of possible
variations using those compounds only. And, without the original organisms
to extract them from, it would be difficult to determine if they were
actually from a different genetic "family tree". Only the punctuation codes
would be good indicators if we had a bottle full of alien genes that
happened to use the same chemistry as our own. Think of two languages that
use the same alphabet, but scramble the meanings of the letters, like a
substitution cypher. It might look almost okay, but would be illegible.
However, we have synthesized other base pairs that work just fine inside
genetic strands, but are completely different from the ones used by life on
Earth. What that seems to say is that other worlds might have life
stumbling upon a different set of chemicals for writing down the code of
life. This would be an immediate indicator that we had something unusual.
It would be an incompatible, unreadable language of genetics, like comparing
the Arabic alphabet to the English alphabet.
Then again, it could be that some other wildly different scheme, not
even involving DNA or RNA, might be used by other life. What would it be?
Impossible to say; the combinations of chemicals have not even been
investigated. But we can probably assume that whatever it is, it would be
based on the stuff that shows up in tholin, that primordial soup of
compounds formed from basic, abiotic chemicals when they are exposed to
heat, lightning, and ultraviolet radiation.
The bottom line is this- is Martian DNA the same as our own? If it is,
then that would be evidence that we shared a common past. If it is not,
then it tells an even more fascinating story. We can then expect perhaps
millions of different genetic codes all over the galaxy, and we can dismiss
fears of alien viruses because they are not compatible- think Windows based
program running on an Atari-800. Won't work.
Post by Rick NelsonDo all of you know about the Javanese super-volcano that reduced
homo-sapiens to less than 5K individuals about 50-60K years ago? It may
have also caused the virtual extinction of the other intelligent ape
species (there were about 20 I think) - though I tend to think of homo
sapiens are murderous greedy non-cooperative shits who probably just
raped and killed the "them" for fun.
Typically, the only reason that one species will eliminate another,
non-prey species is because they need the same resources. Cats and dogs in
the wild (think: panthers and wolves) are natural enemies because they are
competing for the same resources of food and hunting grounds. But in the
domestic setting, we often have cats and dogs that get along with each other
very nicely. This is because in this idyllic setting, they are not in
competition. There is plenty of food and nobody has to fight anyone for a
meal.
Now, let's project that to nearly identical species such as the many
variations of Homo. We can well imagine that they might have been just fine
with each other, and even might have had trade, sex, and other
non-threatening relationships with other human species. Dolphins have
relationships with other species of dolphin, and things seem to work out
fine most of the time.
But when the crunch comes and survival becomes a dire situation, a
species will select its own, because only in that manner can it ensure the
production of offspring (and long-term survival). Species that do not stick
to this rule vanish. It means that the scenario of multiple human species
and sub-species working around each other fairly peacefully for a long time
is a good one, and when the climate changes or the food becomes scarce, war
ensues.
Remember that species do not survive by being nice guys. Only hard-core
fighters and survivalists will make the grade.
Post by Rick NelsonI'm trying to piece this all together in my mind and make some sense of
many things I have learned in diverse sciences. alt-life-mars seems to
be full of like-minded people so please express yourselves in respect to
these thoughts of mine.
I find that everything, no matter how semingly unrelated, comes together
somewhere. We simply have to be broad-minded enough and able to find the
relationships to make sense of it. Of course, it also takes many years of
reading, studying, and experimenting to verify those ideas. But what a
great way to spend an existence- learning.
It sure beats fighting larger carnivores.
Cheers!
Sir Charles W. Shults III, K. B. B.
Xenotech Research
321-206-1840