Big Tone
23rd May 2007 - 07:34 PM
http://www.physorg.com/news99109064.html Does anyone still believe in the Goldilocks Zone as a necessity for creating or sustaining life?
axemaster
23rd May 2007 - 08:25 PM
Good point there... This could even fuel some kind of deep space life...
Neil Farbstein
24th May 2007 - 04:48 AM
It's possible that ionizing radiation is causing chaperons to be turned on- genes that repair ionizing radiation damage and that they are causing heterochromatin
depression of genes that turn on protein production and and other metabolic pathways that help the fungi grow.
Pan
24th May 2007 - 05:16 AM
That is pretty darn cool.
And I don't buy the goldilocks zone so much, so long at a given temperature/chemical regime you can form a multitude of macromolecules and permeable membrane of some sort in a liquid something.
Enthalpy
24th May 2007 - 02:06 PM
Even if liquid water is necessary, it could be found deep in a planet or moon big enough to have a hot core, where additionally chemical contrasts would provide an energy source to fungi. This would allow life on a cold planet.
I like the idea of fungi appearing before plants, because they look less complicated. If living near some kind of black smoker (easier than exploiting radioactivity?), they are protected against climate variations.
Corporal Willy
24th May 2007 - 09:54 PM
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Not sure what this means but as an added idea if this is true can it be used to neutralize the stock piles of nuclear waste we now have? We could allow the mine shafts we are digging out in the deserts to be sort of a dinner plate to those fungi that could convert it. Perhaps like a bread oozing from the opening of an oven.