<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Just speculating: Could GRBs have secondary effects on planetary systems, such as burning off too many volatiles (which are then not available, say, for cometary impacts on young worlds?) and shaking up stability (say, causing another heavy bombardment in a system by knocking asteroids off stable/nonintersecting orbits)?</div><div><br></div><div>The effects here might be larger because they don't rely on the GRB getting "lucky" to hit the target planet, but rather do something to the system as a whole the lowers the odds of complex life surviving. <br><br><div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Regards,</span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Dan</span></font></div></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> My latest Kindle book, "Born With Teeth," can be previewed at:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N72FBA2" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N72FBA2</a></span></div></div></body></html>