Sugar in space- Glycolaldehyde spotting makes Alien Life more likely
Scientists working with the IRAM radio telescope have found a basic sugar (glycolaldehyde) in a star-forming region of space, making it more likely that life could form in more areas of space than previously thought.
The compound Glycolaldehyde is a component of ribose, which is a component of Ribonucleic Acid, or RNA. RNA is a cousin of the better-known DNA, responsible for implementing the information stored in DNA. It is therefore fair to assert that Glycolaldehyde is essential to life as we know it. The fact that it has now been found in a star-forming region implies that it will be present on planets when they are eventually formed.
One interesting aspect of this story is the degree to which our knowledge acquisition has become abstracted. We are able to learn about molecules in distant regions of space through several layers of inference. Checking the paper to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, we learn the details of the discovery. The text is dense, as it is in most hard science papers, but a layman with a solid foundation in science can get the gist of most of it.
There's an introduction section, which lays out the basic assertions, followed by several sections supporting those assertions. One section details the interferometric data, how it was obtained, and the process of interpreting it and comparing it to several databases of known interpretation. There is, as always in scientific data, a small margin of observational error, and possible explanations are accounted for. The next section works to show the theoretical possibility of the compound forming based on known chemical reactions. Finally, the information is recapped and the finding restated.
So setting aside assumptions about how life works and what is required to make it so, let's examine what's necessary for a civilization to have made this discovery. First, of course, it must have radio astronomy, with all that entails. Understanding of Electricity, Antennae, Advanced Mathematics. Then it must have a theory of Stellar Formation, which implies Nuclear Physics and Molecular Chemistry. Then it must have a theory of life, which implies Molecular Biology. Then, for this particular discovery to be practical, it implies computer systems advanced enough to store massive amounts of data, and computer science advanced enough to make retrieval of that data efficient. It also implies, given our particular civilization structure, scientific cooperation between nations. Cooperation of tribes and peoples on a large scale, for the benefit of all.
If any one of these is missing, this discovery cannot occur. It literally could not have happened prior to now in human history. This is the cutting edge of science, and what the expansion of human knowledge is meant to be. There is much to learn, many things still left unknown.
And there are many things we think we know that are wrong. Look over the list above, examine all the places assumptions or beliefs about how the universe works could in error. It's absolutely certain that some of the conceptual structure behind this discovery is wrong. That may or may not make a difference in the outcome of this observation, but when studying the far frontiers of scientific information, it's worth remembering how much foundation there is underneath it, and where that foundation might change as we gather more and more information.
This dichotomy, the tension between the thrill of the edge of knowledge and the structure of our assumptions, will be a recurring theme on Weird Reality, examining what we know, what we think we know, and what we might one day know. Stay tuned!
The compound Glycolaldehyde is a component of ribose, which is a component of Ribonucleic Acid, or RNA. RNA is a cousin of the better-known DNA, responsible for implementing the information stored in DNA. It is therefore fair to assert that Glycolaldehyde is essential to life as we know it. The fact that it has now been found in a star-forming region implies that it will be present on planets when they are eventually formed.
One interesting aspect of this story is the degree to which our knowledge acquisition has become abstracted. We are able to learn about molecules in distant regions of space through several layers of inference. Checking the paper to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, we learn the details of the discovery. The text is dense, as it is in most hard science papers, but a layman with a solid foundation in science can get the gist of most of it.
There's an introduction section, which lays out the basic assertions, followed by several sections supporting those assertions. One section details the interferometric data, how it was obtained, and the process of interpreting it and comparing it to several databases of known interpretation. There is, as always in scientific data, a small margin of observational error, and possible explanations are accounted for. The next section works to show the theoretical possibility of the compound forming based on known chemical reactions. Finally, the information is recapped and the finding restated.
So setting aside assumptions about how life works and what is required to make it so, let's examine what's necessary for a civilization to have made this discovery. First, of course, it must have radio astronomy, with all that entails. Understanding of Electricity, Antennae, Advanced Mathematics. Then it must have a theory of Stellar Formation, which implies Nuclear Physics and Molecular Chemistry. Then it must have a theory of life, which implies Molecular Biology. Then, for this particular discovery to be practical, it implies computer systems advanced enough to store massive amounts of data, and computer science advanced enough to make retrieval of that data efficient. It also implies, given our particular civilization structure, scientific cooperation between nations. Cooperation of tribes and peoples on a large scale, for the benefit of all.
If any one of these is missing, this discovery cannot occur. It literally could not have happened prior to now in human history. This is the cutting edge of science, and what the expansion of human knowledge is meant to be. There is much to learn, many things still left unknown.
And there are many things we think we know that are wrong. Look over the list above, examine all the places assumptions or beliefs about how the universe works could in error. It's absolutely certain that some of the conceptual structure behind this discovery is wrong. That may or may not make a difference in the outcome of this observation, but when studying the far frontiers of scientific information, it's worth remembering how much foundation there is underneath it, and where that foundation might change as we gather more and more information.
This dichotomy, the tension between the thrill of the edge of knowledge and the structure of our assumptions, will be a recurring theme on Weird Reality, examining what we know, what we think we know, and what we might one day know. Stay tuned!
posted by H. C. Erlkonig at
4:11 AM
0 Comments
