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Old 15-August-2007, 09:52 AM
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Noclevername Noclevername is offline
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The materials life is formed from are not, by themselves, life.

From the article:
Quote:
Recent probes inside comets show it is overwhelmingly likely that life began in space, according to a new paper by Cardiff University scientists.
Overwhelmingly Likely? That sounds like a specious conclusion, there is still no evidence whatsoever that life began in comets, only that (as has already been known for some time) that comets contain organic molecules. Which seem to be virtually unavoidable in our neck of the universe. But life? How would the conditions needed for life possibly exist in a comet? The energy needed just isn't there. Only a small number of comets approach the inner Solar System closely enough to warm them sufficiently for complex chemical reactions, and then only for brief periods, and most of that heat gets blasted back into space with the surface ablation. Doesn't wash.

Now, if the article had said that the materials needed for life came from comets, that would seem far more feasible. Earth was formed out of the same basic solar debris, after all. But life? In comets? It's sloppy journalism at best, bad science at worst.
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