Galaxies make stars, stars make worlds, and for all we know, planets and moons make life. Does that make life less wondrous?
Or more?
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Questions for Discussion
Your questions and comments appear here, in the order received.
These questions received by 7:30 PM Sunday 11 October?
• What is serpentinization? What is the reason for olivine?
• Recommending a SciFi trilogy by Harry Harrison (The Eden Trilogy) based on dinosaurs not dying out but becoming quite sophisticated and almost exterminating a developing mankind. First in series published in 1984. Parallel universe concept where "that" Earth was not struck by a Cretaceous asteroid.
• I never heard of olivine - did I miss a memo?
• Where did the cyanobacteria come from?
• What precipitated the Cambrian Explosion and how long did it last?
• I think we are not alone.
• Jury is still out on the "Cambrian Explosion". Most "theories about how and why it happened are just that and unfortunately almost impossible to validate.
• Is olivine any more responsible than interstellar seeding by accident or design?
• Why do scientists think that the presence of olivine signals the possibility of life?
• I just started reading a book entitled "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack. It is quite entertaining.
• How is that we know all this 'stuff' about that Lost City that Neil was talking about? How could the pros figure out all that detail from so far away?
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Miscellaneous Resources
• Minerals in 3D: Structures of olivine and related minerals
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• What is a rock? What is a mineral?
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• What is an element? What is a compound?
• Can order arise from disorder? Happens all the time.
• Check out this challenging poem on the subject.
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