[PLUG-TALK] Proxima and flares

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Mon Mar 5 21:45:58 UTC 2018


On Mon, Mar 05, 2018 at 07:12:27AM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/proxima-centauri-flare-may-have-fried-earths-nearest-exoplanet?tgt=nr

Less than meets the eye.  "Earthlike" planets would not
keep an atmosphere and ocean for long near Proxima, so
we would not find a planet that we and other surface-
dwelling species could survive on.   However ...

Some claim that "slow, deep life" powered by geothermal
heat and extending miles deep into the crust comprise most
of the biomass tonnage of life on Earth.  These bizarre
energy-scavenging microbes may wait decades for a pulse
of energy that they can use to reproduce themselves. 

I'm skeptical of these claims; our cells use most of their
energy to repair themselves, or make replacements from
stem cells if necessary.  "Slow life" in high heat sounds
like decay, not long-term survival.  I'm no biologist ...

However, whether this actually happens on Earth or not,
it could.  Bill Martin at Heinrich Heine University, Nick 
Lane at University College London, and a growing number
of other researchers claim life and metabolism originated
in geothermal wells below the sea floor.  Microbial life
may thrive in similar conditions 100 meters below the
surface of Proxima Centauri b, and may have prospered
in better conditions on Mars, three billion years ago. 

Humans, and the conditions we can survive in, are rare
in this universe.  Life is more varied and tenacious,
and can endure conditions that we cannot. 

I hope we find a "second genesis" nearby, deep inside
Mars or Europa or elsewhere.  I fervently hope we do not
contaminate these irreplaceable sites with trillions of
"first genesis" microbes in astronaut shit. 

A second and distinct family of biomolecules would vastly
extend our biochemical understanding and imaginations,
and help us design alternate lifeforms that can work
chemical miracles in a bottle, but cannot possibly
survive and reproduce in our own irreplaceable biosphere. 

That is the quadrillion dollar reason why we should look;
when we run out of "easy" resources on Earth and elsewhere,
we will need engineered lifeforms in extreme environments
to make more.  The "parallax view" afforded by a second
genesis will help us explore molecular biology over much
greater intellectual distances.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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