Dust in space can come “alive”
Rushda:
August 12th, 2007
Scientists have recently discovered that ordinary blind matter in space can take on characteristics of living organisms. Apparently galactic dust could transform into helixes and double helixes, and these formations would even have the memory and power to reproduce themselves.
The study was done by an international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney. The scientists believe their research will transform our beliefs about human and alien life. They also support the ongoing bid for Nasa to start a search for what is often called “weird life” - organisms that lack DNA but still potentially count as life forms.
The researchers are amazed by the results, which are published in New Journal of Physics. The study shows that when non organic dust, when held in the form of plasma at zero gravity form helical structures that are strikingly similar to the helixes of DNA. Apparently these particle structures could contain a code which is very similar to the genetic information held inside organic matter, and most interestingly, the code is likely to be able to replicate itself across generations.
As Professor Greg Morfill, of the Max Planck institute of extra-terrestrial physics, has said:
“Going by our current narrow definitions of what life is, it qualifies. The question now is to see if it can evolve to become intelligent. It’s a little bit like science fiction at the moment. The potential level of complexity we are looking at is of an amoeba or a plant. I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.”
It really does all sounds like something out of science fiction, and indeed Philip Pullman fans will be probably be reminded of how similar this science is to his world of conscious dust in His Dark Materials. As pretty as the picture is however, I think a lot more needs to be done before establishing something like this counts as life and like most I remain sceptical. Only future research in this fascinating field will tell how much of this theory is really fantasy and how much is not.