
Scientists Say Canadian Bacteria Fossils May Be Earth’s Oldest - dnetesn
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/science/earths-oldest-bacteria-fossils.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
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thebouv
Took me a second for my brain to read that as "Canadian Bacteria" instead of
"Canadian Bacon".

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Unbeliever69
I'm glad i'm not the only one!

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dougmwne
I am fascinated as the temporal gap between fireball Earth and living Earth
keeps narrowing. The more this gap closes, the more it suggests that any
planet with the right conditions will develop life. Exciting prospect for
early Martian life!

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FullMtlAlcoholc
Yes. It seems that whenever we consider conditions too extreme to support
life, we find that it flourishes. From the hydrothermal vents of the Mariana
Trench, where temps can reach 340 C and pressures of 1100 atmospheres to
tardigrades surviving in the near vacuum of space, nature finds a way.

If anyone could answer, I've always wondered how a hypothetical bacteria on an
asteroid could survive impact with earth or any celestial body.

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sndean
> If anyone could answer, I've always wondered how a hypothetical bacteria on
> an asteroid could survive impact with earth or any celestial body.

Thinking about it, my initial thought "part of the asteroid didn't get that
hot" can't be right...

More likely [0], some components of the organism can remain intact after
impact. Seeing papers like this one [1], where different components of a
system can/do combine, or seeing one of the current theories for how
mitochondria came to exist [2], makes me think extremely low probability
combinations happen to workout sometimes. That, plus trillions of chances to
happen.

[0] PhD, but not in astrobiology...

[1] [http://www.cell.com/cell-host-
microbe/pdfExtended/S1931-3128...](http://www.cell.com/cell-host-
microbe/pdfExtended/S1931-3128\(16\)30310-9)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_hypothesis)

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cgriswald
> Thinking about it, my initial thought "part of the asteroid didn't get that
> hot" can't be right...

I'm not sure about objects large enough to explode on impact, but smaller
objects heat up and ablate, thus removing the heat, leaving the remaining
object maybe not that hot. Probably tons of variables, including what the
meteor is made of, the shape of it, angle of impact, etc...

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mike_ivanov
> Canadian Bacteria Earth's Oldest

Pfft.. Have you seen our cellular networks?

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mrtri
I dont believe in Jesus or Mohammad, but I believe evolution is mathematically
impossible that some amino acids can evolve into complex DNA in 4 billion
years.

[https://youtu.be/cQoQgTqj3pU](https://youtu.be/cQoQgTqj3pU)

and besides carbon14 dating can go back max, 50.000 years how did they come
with 3.5 billion year old bacteria?

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vivekd
So if life started on this planet shortly after it was formed, it must mean
that life did not begin through the random combination of molecules. That
something else happened to create life, whether it was transported from outer
space or divine intervention.

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packetized
By 'shortly', you mean ~650 million years? I'm not sure I'd consider that
'shortly', especially given that it's only been that long since the Cambrian
explosion.

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vivekd
from the article :

>just 340 million years after the formation of the plant

Also when you consider that the earth was uninhabitable for most of those
first few hundred million years. This was a time when our planet was still
getting bombarded by asteroids and oceans would have boiled away into steam.
Temperatures were hot and the surface was volcanic. It was barely habitable at
this point.

That would would qualify as shortly by most estimates. Life began as soon as
it was possible.

