Could Self-Replicating Crystals in Space Be an Early Form of Inorganic Life?

An international research team claimed a breakthrough in self-replicating plasma crystals which could be an early form of inorganic life. New studies of dust that form lifelike structures suggest that extraterrestrial life may not be carbon-based at all. Researchers at the Russian Academy of Science, the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, and the University of Sydney observed particles of inorganic dust form helical structures and go through other "lifelike" changes.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

iopscience.iop.org...

Great Article, check it out

[edit on 1-4-2010 by Maddogkull]

Oh no, it's the Crystal Entity from Star Trek the next generation.

Fascinating discovery, I wonder what it means.

Interesting indeed...

Just more evidence for me that the Universe is a giant hologram!

Originally posted by Grey Magic
Oh no, it's the Crystal Entity from Star Trek the next generation.

Fascinating discovery, I wonder what it means.

What is life when you reduce it down? I think there is defiantly something there but it also depends on how you define life.

What I am getting at here is do crystals "die". It does show that we may have to broaden our idea of what life is or redefine it.

As the article says, crystals are not life:

While there's no convincing argument restricting life to "gooey squidgy stuff", we're afraid this result has much more to do with promotion than actual science. The core of their argument appears to be that certain helical structures which form in a plasma resemble the helices of DNA - anyone familiar with magnetic fields, or indeed the very idea of "one thing looking like another thing", will realize that a helical shape does not a lifeform make. It's an excellent attempt to garner attention for a moderately interesting (if extremely specific) set of calculations, but that's all.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

reply to post by BellaMente


Why is that evidence the universe is a giant hologram if you don't mind me asking??

Self-replication is a recursive property. Holograms have recursive/fractal attributes. One of the coolest things about a hologram is no matter how many times you cut a piece of holographic film up, each piece contains the entire image of the whole. This principle - each part contains the whole - is a recursive/fractal principle.

If you are interested in the idea of "universal holography", I recommend to look up David Bohm's interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and Karl Pribram's Holonomic Brain Theory.

Interesting find. brings up the question of what constitutes a living system. Surely the basic constitients of a system are not what defines it; but the rather the sum total of the system in its dynamic interaction. It reminds me of the Turing test. If a system exhibits all of the functional properties of life (and I am not saying that the theory necessarily does though this does seem to be the intention behind the article) - then does it matter whether it ultimately is or is not? I am also reminded of a theory I came accross many years ago proposing that early DNA may have modelled itself upon crystalline self - replicating matrices. Who is to say whether say a magnetic vortex might not be a novel form of life?

reply to post by BellaMente


But this is just a computer simulation. It is only as accurate as the parameters programmed into it.

The worst weakness is that most of their pretty pictures (and make no mistake, this is a "Pretty Picture Paper") are only computer simulations. Simulation is an essential tool in modern research, but you can't move ahead based only on what the model tells you. If you're claiming that certain plasma columns can move around and replicate, you'd best actually see some of them before claiming that one of the ten million results you can get out of an adjustable model is particularly good-looking and therefore science.

I'm sorry but this article doesn't prove anything my opinion. Until they have samples of the self replicating crystals in their hands for study, this is mere conjecture.

Just another theory among the myriad out there

Oh...

That's what I get for not reading the post lol.

reply to post by Maddogkull

self replicating crystals are also the theme of a '70s Crichton book/movie: "The Andromeda Strain."

jw