New Nick Lane Talk

[BillTre]

This is very recent.

His talks are becoming more effective (as he does so many).
He also has some new ideas.

 

[Drakkith]

I only watched a few minutes, as I'm about to log off, but it looked very interesting and I'll have to watch the rest later. Thanks for posting, Bill!

 

[pinball1970]

This is very recent.

His talks are becoming more effective (as he does so many).
He also has some new ideas.

I watched part early hours.
Someone asked the question about all the organics that form in space and fall to earth. 1:21:30
I was curious about this myself, pre biotic building blocks already there like amino Acids.

I was quite surprised with his answer which 'not required' as far as his research is concerned.

 

[BillTre]

I was quite surprised with his answer which 'not required' as far as his research is concerned.

I have never thought too much about organics from space (or panspermia for that matter).
To me it seems unlikely that an input of organic molecules from space would result in a high enough concentration of the right kind of organic molecules to initiate a self-sufficient chemical system. Lane's "not required" comment side steps those arguments. He makes the argument stronger by saying it makes his hypotheses falsifiable, while adding more "unrelated" variables makes it more difficult to draw conclusions.

I think it is much more important, WRT the long term survival/replication of the self -sufficient chemical system, that the new parts of the system (chemicals and molecules) are produced locally within the structure of the system. In a contained situation, products can be contained (by the hydrophobic membrane enveloping layer) and build up to higher, more significant concentrations.