
Extraterrestrial organic matter preserved in 3.33 Ga sediments from Barberton - _cereal
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703719302662
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saintgimp
The article uses the word "organic" in a highly technical manner, meaning
chemical compounds that contain carbon, and of course we already know that
space is filled with that sort of thing. It does NOT mean "organic" in the
casual sense of originating from something alive.

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_bxg1
As a layman I guessed as much, but wasn't positive. Clickbaity title.

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pugworthy
Not really - makes a ton of sense if you're an organic chemist.

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notabit
I’m not an organic chemist or a chemist of any sorts, and the headline didn’t
phase me at all or stick out as clickbait. I knew exactly what it meant though
to be fair “o chem” was a common course among my friends majoring in things
like bio-*.

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ianai
Is there any organic chemical that can only be produced by life? Not even sure
that’d be possible.

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jerf
Depends on your personal tolerance for the complexity indicated by the word
"chemical". The presence of "deoxyribonucleic acid" on its own does not prove
life, as that term covers simple cases of it that could conceivably naturally
occur. However, if you've got a multi-million base pair chain of the stuff,
wrapped up in chromatin, and bespeckled with all manner of useful-looking
biochemical doohickeys attached to it, I'm willing to say that's definitely
indicative of life. Is that a "chemical"? I'd certainly call that a "molecule"
that could only be produced by life.

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tristanstcyr
Some analysis: [https://www.sciencealert.com/traces-of-extraterrestrial-
orga...](https://www.sciencealert.com/traces-of-extraterrestrial-organic-
matter-discovered-in-south-african-mountains)

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joe_the_user
Still scanning but I think one must keep in mind the distinction between
"organic matter" and "biological matter", organic is a broad category that
involving a complex array of chemicals that aren't necessarily generated by
living things. Biological material or similar terms refer to stuff that
definitely is or was once alive.

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

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

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anthony_romeo
I _think_ the paper stated that the organic matter was similar to those found
in some Archaean fossils in the area and other parts of the world, so it seems
to be an interesting find

Of course it’s all too easy for a layman such as myself to read too deeply
into things and draw unfounded conclusions about the origins of life. And if I
recall, the rock is newer than the oldest known fossils, so I’ll keep a little
distance on that conclusion for now

But it was pleasant to read about the earliest known fossils, so that’ll be my
current takeaway on this

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hurrdurr2
Just more evidence that life on earth may have been helped along by all this
carbon containing/organic matter deposited via meteorites.

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bayareanative
That's meaningless. The Earth coalesced from supernova remnants, which
included organic compounds, but that doesn't imply living organisms.

