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Life in the Universe

Life in the Universe. Topics. The Origin of Life Are We Alone? The Future. The Origin of Life. William Paley (1802) Published treatise entitled:  Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature .

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Life in the Universe

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  1. Life in the Universe

  2. Topics • The Origin of Life • Are We Alone? • The Future

  3. The Origin of Life • William Paley (1802) • Published treatise entitled:  • Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature. • This is the most famous exposition of the Argument from Design. 

  4. The Origin of Life – II • Argument from Design • Living systems are so exactingly well-adapted to their purpose, and so incredibly complex, they could not have arisen by chance. • Since living systems could not have arisen by chance, yet appear to have been designed by a supremely competent designer, they must have been designed.

  5. The Origin of Life – From Design The haemoglobin molecule 4 chains, each of 146 amino acids, twisted together http://www.purchon.net/cells/peptides.htm http://wserv1.dl.ac.uk/SRS/PX/breathe.html

  6. The Origin of Life – From Design – II • Could this molecule have arisen by chance? • Life on Earth is based on 20 different amino acids. Suppose that 146 amino acids came together by chance. What’s the chance that it would be a haemoglobin molecule? • The number of different ways of making a chain of 146 amino acids from 20 different building blocks is 20 multiplied by itself 146 times. That is, 20146 or about 10190! 

  7. The Origin of Life – From Design – III • Could this molecule have arisen by chance? • Even if random combinations of 146 amino acids were put together at the rate of one trillion a second, it would still take about one million times the age of the universe to have a fair chance of creating a single haemoglobin molecule! • The Argument from Design seems, in view of these odds, to be utterly compelling.

  8. The Origin of Life – IV • Charles Darwin (1859) • Published Origin of Species. • Darwin's idea is very simple: Complexity arises because of evolution through natural selection:  • Mutations that are advantageous are the ones most likely to be inherited. • Organisms adapt to their environments, over many generations, through the cumulative effect of small random mutations.

  9. Tree Of Life http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/1/pdf/l_051_35.pdf

  10. The Origin of Life – V • The Miller Urey Experiments (1950s) • Showed that organic molecules, such as amino acids, can form spontaneously from simpler compounds (H2O, NH4, CH4, H2) given the right circumstances. • Later versions of their experiments created more complex organic molecules. • However, as yet, we do not understand how self-replicating molecules arose.

  11. Are We Alone?

  12. How Many Earth-Like Planets? • Number of Sun-like stars in Milky Way • 10 billion • Number of planets per star • 5 • Fraction of Earth-like planets • 1 in a million • Number of Earth-like Planets • 50,000

  13. Searching for ET • Travel • Pioneer Missions • Pioneer 10 will reach Aldebaran in 2 million AD • Voyager Missions • Voyager 1 will get close to Sirius in 300,000 AD

  14. Searching for ET – II Jill Tarter Director, Project Phoenix • Listen • Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) • Record, and analyze, radio transmissions from many Sun-like stars as possible, as in Project Phoenix • Look for signs of intelligent signals.

  15. Searching for ET – III • Speak Loudly! • Beam radio transmission to a large number of stars. • In 1974, 16 November, astronomers beamed a 3 minute message to the globular cluster M13 in Hercules using the Arecibo radio-telescope.

  16. M13, 24,000 ly away Answer in 48,000 AD ! Fig. 20-13, p.424

  17. The Future of Homo Sapien

  18. Civilizations: Type + • Type I+ • Able to restructure planets • Type II+ • Able to restructure solar systems • Type III+ • Able to restructure galaxies • : : • Type + • Able to restructure Universe

  19. Civilizations: Type - • Type I- • Able to manipulate objects on their scale • Type II- • Able to manipulate genes, transplant and replace parts of themselves • Type III- • Able to manipulate molecules, create new materials • Type IV- • Able to manipulate atoms, create nanotechnologies and artificial life

  20. Civilizations: Type – (contd.) • Type V- • Able to manipulate atomic nuclei • Type VI- • Able to manipulate elementary particles of matter and create new states of matter • Type - • Able to manipulate space and time

  21. Which Path Shall Our Species Take? • Rat Race Strategy (RRS) • Short Term Gain • Self Interest • Competition • Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) • Cooperation • Great Foresight • Great Altruism • Longevity Which path should we take ?

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