List of All Articles with Tag 't'

The meaning of life is the ultimate mystery – why do we exist? And is there a point to… well… anything? These are questions to which we may never find answers, but at least we can define what “life” means in scientific terms. And yet, our understanding of what life is is changing all the time, thanks to space exploration. As scientists continue to hunt for life beyond our own world, biologists are having to rethink the meaning of the word “life” itself. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Generally, biologists explain “life” as connoting a self-sustaining chemical system which is capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolising, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli. This definition works pretty well here on Earth (although there are some important exceptions, such as viruses), but experts have pointed out that if life exists elsewhere in the universe, it may not display the same properties that we’re used to. Indeed, it might be unrecognisable as life as we know it (forget those little green men). In which case, how will we spot it if it ever crosses our path? Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker and chemist Lee Cronin think they’ve come up with a solution. The pair are now arguing that highly complex molecules found in all living creatures can’t exist thanks purely to chance. Therefore, they say, the universe must have a way of creating and reproducing complex information and retaining a “memory” of all of this.. In an interview with New Scientist, Walker, of Arizona State University, explained their radical idea on how objects come into existence. The concept, known as Assembly Theory, explains why certain complex objects have become more abundant than others by considering their histories. If the theory proves correct, it will redefine what we mean by “living” things and show that we’ve been going about the search for extraterrestrial life all wrong. In the process, we could even end up creating alien life in a laboratory, she stressed. In her discussion with New Scientist, Walker pointed out: "An electron can be made anywhere in the universe and has no history. You are also a fundamental object, but with a lot of historical dependency. You might want to cite your age counting back to when you were born, but parts of you are billions of years older. "From this perspective, we should think of ourselves as lineages of propagating information that temporarily finds itself aggregated in an individual." Assembly theory predicts that molecules produced by biological processes must be more complex than those produced by non-biological processes, as Science Alert notes. To test this, Walker and her team analysed a range of organic and inorganic compounds from around the world and outer space, including E. coli bacteria, urine, meteorites and even home-brewed beer. They then smashed up the compounds into smaller pieces and used mass spectrometry to pinpoint their molecular building blocks. They calculated that the smallest number of steps required to reassemble each compound from these building blocks was 15. And whilst some compounds from living systems needed fewer than 15 assembly steps, no inorganic compounds made it above this threshold. "Our system … allows us to search the universe agnostically for evidence of what life does rather than attempting to define what life is," Walker, Cronin, and others wrote in a 2021 Nature Communications article. The handy thing about this building block system – which they’ve dubbed the “'molecular assembly index” – is that it doesn’t rely on carbon-based organic materials to be identified. In other words, an alien could be made of entirely different stuff entirely and we’d still be able to spot it as life using the index. It also works regardless of what stage of “life” an extraterrestrial being is in – whether it is still in its infancy or has moved into a technological stage beyond our understanding. That’s because all of these states produce complex molecules which couldn’t exist in the absence of a living system. If all of this is hurting your head, let’s just get back to the basics: if there is a secret to life, it might all be down to what we do, not what we are. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Donald Trump has referred an armed rebellion from a Russian mercenary leader as a “big mess” in a pair of statements on his Truth Social account attacking Joe Biden and his son Hunter. “A big mess in Russia, but be careful what you wish for. Next in may be far worse!” he wrote. His statement came hours before his scheduled address to an evangelical political conference in Washington DC on Saturday, the one-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s decision to revoke constitutional protections for abortion, a landmark decision hailed by conservative Christian groups. During his appearance, Mr Trump railed against the criminal indictments against him and celebrated the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling. Mr Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the decision to overturn Roe v Wade, after he appointed three conservative justices to the nation’s highest court in office. His appearance at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual event follows comments at the conference from his 2024 rival and former vice president Mike Pence, who announced his endorsement of a national ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. Read More Trump declares himself the ‘most pro-life’ president in American history Trump celebrates anniversary of anti-abortion ruling as he tells religious crowd ‘I’m getting indicted for you’ Trump says US government has 'vital role' opposing abortion, won't say if he backs national ban Trump dubs Russia coup a ‘big mess’ as fellow presidential candidates weigh in on Wagner rebellion

Russia began lifting emergency restrictions in an effort to restore normality after the dramatic end to an armed

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing on Sunday, a

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is proposing the biggest training expansion in the history of the UK’s National Health

Vote tallying was underway in Sierra Leone on Sunday, the electoral commission said, following fiercely fought elections that were mostly calm despite...

Former chief of the UK general staff, Lord Richard Dannatt, has discussed the fate of the head of the Wagner mercenary group after events in Russia in the last 24 hours. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who ordered his troops to march on Moscow, abruptly reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile in Belarus and sounded the retreat on Saturday evening (24 June). However, Lord Dannatt does not believe “we’ve heard the last” of the rebellious mercenary commander. “We haven’t heard the last of Prigozhin, but we may have begun to hear about the latter days of Vladimir Putin,” He told BBC Breakfast.

Turkey’s Central Bank, under new Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, is easing its security maintenance rule as its first

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM Israel's far-right police minister rebuked the force on Sunday for what he called "collective

Elton John was set to close out Britain's legendary Glastonbury Festival on Sunday, bringing down the curtain on the five-day annual spectacular with what has been...

Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan is testifying at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial

PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia named a new chief executive officer and said it will sell its scandal-hit government consultant unit