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PBS Nova: Life's Rocky Start

Good, but not enough depth. Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't NOVA used to put more science in these shows?
 
marplots said:
Good, but not enough depth. Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't NOVA used to put more science in these shows?
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A bit, and, yes they are playing only a level or two above the high level of feces and repetitiousness of the Science (:D:D:jaw-dropp) channel.
 
Generally Rational said:
The hypothesis that rocks, water and carbon dioxide formed life has gone mainstream enough to make it to the PBS series Nova:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/life-rocky-start.html

Right at this moment, it may still be possible to watch a repeat broadcast on your cable system or even your local PBS Station, or you can watch it online for a limited time at the link above.
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An equally facination theory is that life developed on Mars after which the life was transferred to earth via a martian meteor.
 
Cainkane1 said:
An equally facination theory is that life developed on Mars after which the life was transferred to earth via a martian meteor.
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tsig said:
That just moves it one turtle back.
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Never understood the attraction of this theory. Yeah, Mars may have once had conditions conducive to the development of life, but the Earth definitely did. Maybe it is possible for microbes to somehow survive on a piece of debris that gets blasted into space and some years or centuries later somehow finds its way to earth. Are either of these things likely though? Somehow more likely than that life on earth originated on earth? I don't think so.

ETA: generally, if it's a small piece of debris, it will burn up in the atmosphere before hitting the ground, right? Even if large, the surface would be heated up and ablated. The microbes would somehow have to survive that too. Surviving every step of that trip seems far-fetched to me. Plus we still don't have any good evidence that life ever existed on Mars in the past.
 
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Puppycow said:
Never understood the attraction of this theory. Yeah, Mars may have once had conditions conducive to the development of life, but the Earth definitely did. Maybe it is possible for microbes to somehow survive on a piece of debris that gets blasted into space and some years or centuries later somehow finds its way to earth. Are either of these things likely though? Somehow more likely than that life on earth originated on earth? I don't think so.

ETA: generally, if it's a small piece of debris, it will burn up in the atmosphere before hitting the ground, right? Even if large, the surface would be heated up and ablated. The microbes would somehow have to survive that too. Surviving every step of that trip seems far-fetched to me. Plus we still don't have any good evidence that life ever existed on Mars in the past.
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It's known as the ACK-ACK Theory.
 
Puppycow said:
Never understood the attraction of this theory. Yeah, Mars may have once had conditions conducive to the development of life, but the Earth definitely did. Maybe it is possible for microbes to somehow survive on a piece of debris that gets blasted into space and some years or centuries later somehow finds its way to earth. Are either of these things likely though? Somehow more likely than that life on earth originated on earth? I don't think so.

ETA: generally, if it's a small piece of debris, it will burn up in the atmosphere before hitting the ground, right? Even if large, the surface would be heated up and ablated. The microbes would somehow have to survive that too. Surviving every step of that trip seems far-fetched to me. Plus we still don't have any good evidence that life ever existed on Mars in the past.
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Actually there is good evidence for life on Mars in the past. Not conclusive because there are other possible but less likely explanations for the "stromatolite-like" rock formations/fossils, but good.

The reason some people like the Mars first hypothesis is it would have likely cooled to the conditions for life first, being smaller and farther from the sun. It also allows more time for the early evolution, as many models predict the time needed to be longer than the age of the Earth.

Personally I am in the Earth first camp, but that's where the idea for Mars first panspermia comes from.
 
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