Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:39:39 -0400 From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: [WSFA] Life (really) Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Excerpt: Life took root more than four billion years ago on our nascent Earth, a wetter and harsher place than now, bathed in sizzling ultraviolet rays. What started out as simple cells ultimately transformed into slime molds, frogs, elephants, humans and the rest of our planet's living kingdoms. How did it all begin? A new study from researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and the Icy Worlds team at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, describes how electrical energy naturally produced at the sea floor might have given rise to life. While the scientists had already proposed this hypothesis \342\200\224 called "submarine alkaline hydrothermal emergence of life" \342\200\224 the new report assembles decades of field, laboratory and theoretical research into a grand, unified picture. --- end excerpt --- <http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2014/04/new-study-outlines-water-world-theory-lifes-origins> mark