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[Squill]

Conversation in science class last month:
Student:"So if cells come from other cells, then where did the first ones come from?
Teacher:"Well, we don't really know for sure."
Other Student:"Well, wasn't it when Adam and Eve-"
Teacher:"Okay, okay, we're talking about cells right now."

[Flying Dice]

Conversation in science class last month:
Student:"So if cells come from other cells, then where did the first ones come from?
Teacher:"Well, we don't really know for sure."
Other Student:"Well, wasn't it when Adam and Eve-"
Teacher:"Okay, okay, we're talking about cells right now."

Silly teacher, gametes are cells. :V

[Devling]

Cells can be created under the right circumstances.
Like how cells were created on primordial earth, in some kind of puddle.
Atleast, that's my understanding of the origins of cells.

[Frumple]

... don't we actually have a few experiments that's managed (somewhat limited, but still...) abiogenesis? Science teacher should know that one, right?

[Hanslanda]

... don't we actually have a few experiments that's managed (somewhat limited, but still...) abiogenesis? Science teacher should know that one, right?

Yes. You take the primitive amino acids and stuff, mix it with minerals and all that good stuff, and zap it with electricity and it will generate extremely primitive, self-replicating... Stuff. At least, that's how I understood it.

[frostshotgg]

You need to be a bit more advanced than amino acids.

[Max White]

Point is that once you have something that self replicates, errors in the replication process lead to mutations, and mutations lead to refinement. Over time the 'things' more suited to survival and reproduction thrive and the others die off. At some point, they become what we think of as life.

[Descan]

AFAIK we haven't gotten self-replicating new life in a lab yet. We HAVE had success with replication of early-earth environment and having the flask fill with amino acid gunk, which while organic, is NOT life. Not even as lowly as a virus, it doesn't replicate.

Considering how quickly we got those acids, which are fairly vital to life, considering the time scales of early earth... Yeah, you shoot enough random photons across half the universe for long enough, and eventually you're gonna show the Mona Lisa to some aliens. Same here, it's just a matter of time.

Also, photons that come out of a star aren't infinite in number, right? How the hell don't they spread out absurdly over universal distances? I know the wavelength lengthens but the photons that reach us are still fairly close together, even though all those photons need to make a shell 2x the distance to the star around...

Though maybe they DO spread out like that and that's why we only see really really distant galaxies with long exposure times, since the photons have spread out but they're continuously coming?

[Putnam]

The interstellar medium is absurdly thin, the intergalactic medium moreso.

[Descan]

That has nothing to do with this. I'm not saying "Why aren't photons blocked by all those stars in the way!", I'm saying "Why don't they spread out like a shotgun blast over 13.xx billion light years?"

And then I said my last paragraph. >:I Respond to what I type, not what you think I type! >:C

[USEC_OFFICER]

That has nothing to do with this. I'm not saying "Why aren't photons blocked by all those stars in the way!", I'm saying "Why don't they spread out like a shotgun blast over 13.xx billion light years?"

They do. It's called the Inverse Square Law, I believe. The fact that we manage to see stars at night considering how far away they are is a testament to the sheer amount of energy they can produce.

[Devling]

None of this is amazingly stupid guys.
We need to get on this miraculous stupidity.

[Descan]

Damn, and I knew what that was too!

Ah well... Back to youtube!

[Max White]

Eh, photons, as with all elementary particle, are strange.

[Putnam]

That has nothing to do with this. I'm not saying "Why aren't photons blocked by all those stars in the way!", I'm saying "Why don't they spread out like a shotgun blast over 13.xx billion light years?"

And then I said my last paragraph. >:I Respond to what I type, not what you think I type! >:C

They do, it's just that a large amount still make it to us because, well... you know, there's nothing special about our direction.