To me, the real question regarding alternative energy production systems is
whether any of them might produce a molecule of oxygen as waste, as
photosynthesis does. You get free O2 in the water, you've got the
possibility of large, robust organisms not unlike ourselves. Any other
energy system--while leading to interesting life, no question--is likely to
remain 100 % microbial, precluding bug-eyed mosterns in the Europan seas.
Mike Taylor
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Moomaw [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 8:38 PM
To: Icepick Europa Mailing List
Subject: Re: Alternative Energy Sources Could Support Life on Europa
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: Alternative Energy Sources Could Support Life on Europa
In a message dated 4/3/2001 3:52:01 PM Alaskan Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Grrr. This is exactly that revelation I had saved for my coming
SpaceDaily
article on the possibility that Europan organisms -- without
evolutionary
competition from the far more vigorous photsynthetic organisms --
couldhave
evolved energy-collection systems unlike any on Earth organisms today.
Bruce... I'm reminded of Charles Darwin, in 1860, ruminating for decades on
his findings in Patagonia and the Galapagos... until finally propelled to
action under threat of another scientist coming up with the same theory, and
thereby stealing his thunder. And what a thunder it was.
So, Bruce, get cracking!
______________________________
You misunderstood me -- I wasn't claiming that I came up with the idea
myself, but referring to the fact that I had vaguely mentioned, in an
earlier message, the fact that Schultz and Irwin had proposed such an idea
themselves at the Europa Focus Group. Granted that I'm brilliant, but I'm
not THAT brilliant. (The only two really good scientific ideas I've ever
come up with myself were my suggestion in a U. of California term paper back
in 1973 that early hominids might have evolved grammatically sophisticated
sign language before they evolved the ability to utter complex verbal
speech -- an idea which, I see, is now starting to catch on in the
scientific community -- and maybe that recent business about a cheaper
design for the Pluto probe based on an existing spacecraft.) Frankly, I
could kick myself for NOT thinking of the possibility that those induced
electrical currents in Europa's ocean might serve as a biological energy
source. How much longer will the Nobel Prize continue to elude me?
Bruce Moomaw
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