This is seriously cool science

How life on Earth began story


I look forward to the day when they finally understand this. I hope that it is within my lifetime.

CC

First of all, cool article CC

But this blew my mind:

'Among the early theories of how the first self-replicating molecule came into existence was the "primordial soup", where simple molecules mixed together in a broth that was regularly energised by ultraviolet light and electric storms.'

UV light, fair enough... but electric storms?

why can imagine something like Frankenstein with some nutter screaming *IT'S ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!!*

ITS ALIVEEEEEEEEEE



Imagine no more

Cool article CC!

Why not? What do they do in hospitals when your heart stops? They use electricity. Same principle, but a slightly different scale, maybe.

The reference to "electrical storms" stems from research involving electrical sparks and "primordial soup mix" that's been done in labs. Chemical bonds are electrical in nature, and the high energy causes exotic molecules to be formed randomly. They'd produced simple organic compounds this way over 20 years ago. I read it in New Scientist when I was still at school.

Since the earth is quite big and lightning is striking it somewhere non-stop, and since it only takes a single molecule to start a chain reaction, life is not as unlikely as some people would have you think.

Now you know why you shouldn't microwave yesterday's cuppasoup...

Ohhhh - they are writing about scientists. I refuse to have anything to do with such people. I am only interested in such things if boffins are involved.

I was thinking about this in work today and sort of figured the 'soup' would have been widespread enough to be hit by the storms, but it's still a hell of a theory, and it's not the only one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primordial ... conditions

I know people get sniffy about Wikipedia, but there's still a lot of links there

This really winds me up. Why? Because essentially they don't.

When people go into cardiac arrest, CPR is performed. An ecg monitor is attached and shows whether there's electrical activity or not. Depending on the tracing, the patient can either be defibrillated (shocked) or not. All the shock does, essentially, is stop the heart - not restart it! It's like pressing the reset button - the heart will either then start to beat into a normal rhythm, stay as its (requiring further shocks) or change rhythm into another one.

If you flatline, electric shocks aren't gonna do anything. The only things that will help are CPR and medicines.

From a telly point of view, it always looks more dramatic if they get the paddles out and shout “clear”.

Then everyone gets better (pre watershed) or they start asking what the time is and looking morose (post watershed). I know, TV drama gives the wrong expectations over resuscitation. It was on the news once. I think the BMA got upset about it.