[ExI] Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 01:47:57PM +0100, BillK wrote:

> > The abstract alone says no such thing.
> 
> Perhaps you should read more than just the abstract then?

Did you just quote an article from a rubbish site to
a trained chemist who happens to be interested in
the origin of life and your comeback is that I'm
misinterpreting the abstract you didn't read, and I
should do your work for you, for free? It's an
 interesting  idea.
 
> >
> >
> >> that could ultimately change our understanding of how alcohols are
> >> formed and destroyed in space - and which could also mean that places
> >> like Saturn's moon Titan, once considered too cold for life to form,
> >
> > Thought by whom? Liquid water and water/ammonia are pretty
> > common all over the solar system.
> >
> 
> Eugen, you seem to have developed a recent tendency to automatically
> rubbish anything which contradicts your current worldview. How about

No, I'm being more selective. You think you can afford to believe
anything as if there was no cost attached. Nope. Keep your mind open
but not enough that your brain falls out is not just an aphorism.

You give me a mechanism how you think order is preserved in gas
phase or plasma, or how matter transport happens in solid state,
and then we talk. Is that sufficiently specific?

> trying for a bit more consideration that maybe, just maybe, somebody
> may, just possibly, have something a bit different?
> 
> Here are quotes from one of the authors of the paper, from the New Scientist:

New Scientist is not a peer reviewed primary publication. You might
think I'm being difficult for no reason, but I'm really aren't.
Get it straight from the horse's mouth, and don't bother with
interpreters that will only garble the message.

> Quote:
> The team also found that the reaction occurred 50 times faster via
> quantum tunnelling than if it occurred normally at room temperature by
> hurdling the energy barrier. Empty space is much colder than 63
> kelvin, but dust clouds near stars can reach this temperature, adds
> Heard.

Yes, so what?
 
> "We're showing there is organic chemistry in space of the type of
> reactions where it was assumed these just wouldn't happen," says

Yes, so what?

> Heard.
> --------
> 
> Let's hope you don't claim the authors have misunderstood their own paper.

The authors sure didn't. You did. Hint: the article has nothing
whatsoever to do with the origin of life. We already know that
prebiotic chemistry was clement enough at least in one instance.
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