Unexpected question to be answered by the Large Hadron Collider?

[Ashles]

On this BBC page Professor Brian Cox (from theLHC at CERN) does some Q and A and answers some subjects put forward by the public.

There is this little gem:

Q: Can bacteria survive?

Would it be possible to put various simple bacteria into the experiment to see if they survive. We are relatively certain that plant RNA probably evolved during the Big Bang.

Animal DNA on the other hand could not and possibly came from meteorites carrying bacteria from other worlds (Panspermia theory). It would put this idea to bed if it couldn't survive the Big Bang. (Mick)

"We are relatively certain that plant RNA probably evolved during the Big Bang."??????
Where do people get these things from?
I am frankly surprised the question was even put to him.

Prof Cox's answer, while fairly appropriately dismissive, doesn't seem to entirely address Mick's total lack of understanding of anything.

A: It won't! At the temperatures we generate in the collisions at LHC, even protons and neutrons don't survive, never mind atoms and molecules.

Does anyone know where Mick could have got this idea that plant RNA was evolving "during the Big Bang"?
Is this a common idea on the internet I have not encountered before?

Can we track down Mick and have him "adjusted"?

(Oh and whatever you do don't click on the section to read people's comments. They actually make me depressed if they are even slightly indicative as to how unutterably stupid so many people are.)

 

[leon_heller]

I've never heard of it.

It's indicative of the state of the educational system.

Leon

 

[calebprime]

Is that an African or European Swallow?

 

[krelnik]

I've seen deluded thinking very similar to this from creationists right here on this forum:

According to evolutionary theory, isn't it true that mankind evolved from bacteria that originated from the "big bang", an event taking place in space?

Here is my reply. Unsurprisingly, Relic never replied to it.

I've seen other creationist discussions where the Big Bang comes up. Since it is about the very moment of the creation of the universe, they feel compelled to dispute it too. I suppose in a deluded mind of a creationist its not too many steps to somehow think that the Big Bang and Evolution, two things they hate, are closely related to one another.

Reverse engineering the thoughts of crazy people makes me woozy, though, so I shant pursue it.

 

[nzric]

Well, technically speaking all of this is still "during the big bang"

 

[MattusMaximus]

Wow, that's right up there with this bumper sticker...

http://home.pacbell.net/skeptica/Bang_it_happened.JPG

Ignorance marches us ever backwards.

 

[Soapy Sam]

God "spook" surely?