The “Planet Earth Report” connects you to headline news on the science, technology, discoveries, people and events changing our planet and the future of the human species.
Today, AFP reported that tardigrades, Earth’s hardiest microscopic, multicellular species, that were stored inside a “Lunar Library” –a nanotechnology device that resembles a DVD and contains a 30-million-page archive of human history viewable under microscopes, as well as human DNA– likely made it out alive following a crash landing on the lunar surface by Israel’s Beresheet probe in April, the US-based organization responsible for their trip said Tuesday.
Today’s insights and commentary from the world’s leading scientist’s Twitter and YouTube postings on astronomy, physics, biology, evolution, SETI, cosmology, genetics, and climate change.
Scientists are making predictions about the biological make-up of advanced, complex aliens, offering a degree of insight as to what they might look like. In Ridley Scott’s movie Prometheus stunning opening, the Engineer, the blue muscle-bound alien, mirrors a modern human, standing by the waterfall drinking black goo to break down his genetic structure and spread life on Earth through his DNA. What we see is the beginning is the creation of Earth. The giant ship has landed on early Earth to drop off the Engineer to terraform the planet and make it sustainable for life.
The preview: When Earth was a lifeless planet in the Hadean Eon about 4 billion years ago, chemical components came together in tiny molecular chains that would later evolve into proteins, crucial life building blocks. A new study has shown how fortuitously some early predecessors of protein may have fallen into line.
Putting aside random events such as the 14-mile wide asteroid that destroyed the 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs and cleared the path for the evolution of the human species, aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes and mechanisms that shaped humans, such as natural selection. “A fundamental task for astrobiologists is thinking about what extra-terrestrial life might be like,” said Sam Levin, at the University of Oxford.
