Life from the stars

 

 

“We are stardust,” declared Matthew Fox, scholar and innovative educator, to an audience in Buffalo a few years ago. The elements that comprise the human body are the elements contained in the stars making us one with the universe.

Scientists from Europe and the USA have just confirmed that their research provides evidence that life's raw materials came from sources beyond the earth.

The report, published June 15, 2008, shows for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin. “The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars.”

Lead author Dr. Zita Martens, Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College, London said that “early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations.”

About 4 billion years ago, a large number of meteorites rained down on the Earth at a time when primitive life was forming. Co-author of the report Mark Sephton added that “the key components of life could be widespread in the cosmos.

 

As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely.”

The team discovered the molecules in rock fragments of the Murchison meteorite, which crashed in Australia in 1969.

The new scientific findings support ancient teachings that regard the universe as a cosmic being with its laws applying to component parts, galaxies, solar systems, planetary systems, human systems, etc.

 

As the old idiom goes “as above, so below.” And as new discoveries are made in the various fields of knowledge, the mysteries of the human being and the universe will continue to unravel.
 

 

June 18, 2008

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