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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

What looks to be a good two part series, Origins will tell the theories and concepts of the origin of life here on terra firma.

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Miniseries looks at universe's origins

Airing on PBS tomorrow and Wednesday, Origins revisits Earth during its unpromising first billion years and returns, even earlier, for the event that began it all: the big bang.

Origins explores how, against heavy odds, life on Earth began (possibly crash landing here from outer space). And it investigates whether today life exists anywhere else (maybe on one of the more than 100 newly discovered planets that lie beyond our solar system).

The show poses ancient, maybe obvious questions. But hardly idle ones, says Tyson, a leading astrophysicist and the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

"Only when you know how something is born can you truly understand what has happened to it since then," he points out during a recent interview -- not to mention its prospects for the future.

A subtitle for Origins, says Tyson, could well have been The Search for Ourselves in the Cosmos. And -- flash! -- there is new hope for easing our identity crisis, thanks to a growing collaboration across scientific disciplines.

Among the many scientists he consults in telling the story of Earth are some whose careers are devoted to hybrid specialities "that I hadn't even dreamed of," Tyson says with evident amazement.

Example: biogeology.

"Historically, biologists accept that life thrives here on Earth's surface. But once we started finding life thriving elsewhere" -- like the hardy microbes recovered from rocks kilometres underground -- "it was clear that these life forms owed their existence to peculiarities in the geology of the earth."

Tyson views the collaborative process that yields a cross-cultural field like biogeology as a sort of intellectual liberation. And he points out that, oddly enough, it's a throwback to three or four centuries ago, when scientists (or "natural philosophers") remained generalists.

With increased specialization, says Tyson, came a range of different priorities and different sets of questions: Astrophysicists asked, "How did the universe get here?" Biologists asked, "How did life begin?" Geologists asked, "How did Earth begin?" Physicists asked, "What is the origin of the elements?"

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I'll be watching, should be good substance for forum discussion...

[Al Degutis]

I watched all of the first part and three-quarters of the second part of the Nova series so far. If you enjoyed this series I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE BOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING by Bill Bryson. Much of what is discussed in this Nova series is covered in the book in a little more detail, plus so much more.

One thing that the series did make me think more about is whether there is really other life out there. I've always believed that we can't be alone in the universe. I don't suspect we'd find much in our own solar system, but with the (as Carl Sagan would say) "billions and billions" of stars I just have to believe that the odds are good that there is life out there. Now what the Nova series has me questioning is what are the odds of that life developing into technological masters. I use the term technological masters instead of intelligent life for a reason. Our planet is filled with intelligent life forms (dolphins, primates, etc). As pointed out in the series the cephalopods have enormously powerful brains that allow them to control their skin COLOR AND TEXTURE to morph with their surroundings. Being a computer person, I know the complexities it would take to write a computer program to do that morphing, yet the cephalopod uses it's built in computer. We, humans, take for granted the intelligence around us (my only exception is those rascally racoons which I never underestimate). When you look at the number of species that live on our planet and think that only one has reached our technological state, again the odds seems very tough.

Our existance and rise to technological dominance happened all by chance, by accident, like the odds of winning the lottery. What are the odds that other solar systems developed with an earth like planet with the proper position from the sun (the Goldilocks effect) and a "big brother" planet such as Jupiter helping to deflect a lot of dangerous space debris? Plus, add in the odds of just the right sized meteor making it passed Jupiter's sentinal and striking the planet at just the right time in the planets history to wipe out the dominant species to allow a new species to slowly, every so slowly, rise to dominance. Using the lottery analogy again, sure more than one person has won the large lottery prizes, but you have to look at the number of people that play to try and win against those odds.

So, I still think we are not alone and I still believe that there are technologically developed celestial neighbors out there. But I'm now thinking that they are few and far between. I can only hope that they are less destructive and aggressive then we are and that they've mastered science in such a way that allows them to visit us and show us that "we are not alone" in hopes that we can stop trying to kill each other here on our little piece of space rock. Again, this is a hope, a dream...

[NatureDevil]

I saw this book a while ago at a Border's and a friend of mine bought it a few weks ago. In my latest batch of books to come through the mail, I added this one to it.

One of the reasons I like Star Trek so much is for what you just stated. Take away the goofy plots and weird alien shaped heads; you have a world where humans have evolved to a point where poverty is gone and there is no need for currency. War on Earth has stopped and peace has been reached.

Of course, they found a way to start wars with other aliens, but the ideas are the same.

At that same time, you have species from other planets who evolved several different ways. In the latest show Enterprise, we met a species where there are 3 sexes on the planet. All three are required to reproduce. At the same time, only of of them holds a low 4% of the population, meaning that for every one of this 3rd sex that is born, they are raised to do nothing bvut be passed around the other 96% to help them reproduce.

You have a species that got one of the crewmembers (Charles Tucker) pregnant by touching him (kinda). He grew a nipple of his wrist. One planet even had 6 distinct dominating species grow from it. Due to war, only 5 of them remained.

It doesn't just take a geek to be encompassed by this stuff, it takes an open mind and a little science and reasoning.

NatureDevil

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

But now suppose, taking the devils advocate position, that we are a freak of the universe. Nothing like this planet exists in the entire universe. No sentient life form or primordial inklings of independant thought. Distant shores lapping water onto sandy beaches...howling winds eroding mountain ranges and sandy plains heated by twin suns...all devoid of life. The entire universe with no pulse of life...and just mechanical pocesses. It's kinda sad.

But we as the human race, are an aggressive and illlogical bastards of the universe. Perhaps we don't belong amongst the space faring civilizations. I think that we would be feared and perceived as a threat by progressive beings, and shunned...or even quarantined.

Anything we touch, we seem to contaminate. The moon and near Earth space is now littered with debris, toxic fuel is dumped and burned and we have sent our probes into semi-deep space with higly radioactive plutonium and a recording of greetings. A double gift from Earth. It's so dirty and unconsiderate to the environment. But it's all we got.

I am all for the exploration of space, but it would seem like an illlogical and moronic way to travel, to real space travelers. We are just not technologically ready for serious space exploration.

Baby steps, yes...but I don't think we will ever pass the toddler stage.