Comments on: Do Asphalt-Loving Microbes Point the Way to Life on Titan? http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/23/do-asphalt-loving-microbes-point-the-way-to-life-on-titan/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day's most compelling topics. Mon, 21 May 2012 04:06:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Georg http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/23/do-asphalt-loving-microbes-point-the-way-to-life-on-titan/comment-page-1/#comment-163842 Georg Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:00:17 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=13957#comment-163842 "The molasses-like goop got all over the lab, Hallam says, and because oil and water don’t mix, water couldn’t wash it off." Big news! If they had visited a lab used to handle viscous and/or strongly coloured materials, they had learned some basic methods towork with such nasty stuff. In my days, a student under suspicion neglecting clean organic lab practice, was giventhe task to sythesize crystal violet. :=) “The molasses-like goop got all over the lab, Hallam says, and because oil and water don’t mix, water couldn’t wash it off.”

Big news!
If they had visited a lab used to handle viscous and/or
strongly coloured materials, they had learned some basic
methods towork with such nasty stuff.
In my days, a student under suspicion neglecting clean
organic lab practice, was giventhe task to sythesize crystal violet.
:=)

]]> By: scott http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/23/do-asphalt-loving-microbes-point-the-way-to-life-on-titan/comment-page-1/#comment-163559 scott Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:57:32 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=13957#comment-163559 Might the limiting factor for life on these "right ingredients for life" moons perhaps be heat? Isnt Titan really cold? Are there hot springs there? I know these bugs can be found in cold spots on earth...but at the super chilled temps on these moons and with all that radiation? I think in this system we are it (just my opinion)....at best we might find some tiny cells eeking out a cold existance. Life on these bodies might have already come and gone....or it might evolve millions of years from now. At any rate, I think these moons are much more interesting than their gas giant parents - in all aspects. Might the limiting factor for life on these “right ingredients for life” moons perhaps be heat? Isnt Titan really cold? Are there hot springs there? I know these bugs can be found in cold spots on earth…but at the super chilled temps on these moons and with all that radiation? I think in this system we are it (just my opinion)….at best we might find some tiny cells eeking out a cold existance. Life on these bodies might have already come and gone….or it might evolve millions of years from now. At any rate, I think these moons are much more interesting than their gas giant parents – in all aspects.

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