Scientists study organization of life on a planetary scale

When we think of life on Earth, we might think of individual examples ranging from animals to bacteria. When astrobiologists study life, however, they have to consider not only individual organisms, but also ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-scientists-life-planetary-scale.html#jCp

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists study organization of life on a planetary scale

When we think of life on Earth, we might think of individual examples ranging from animals to bacteria. When astrobiologists study life, however, they have to consider not only individual organisms, but also ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-scientists-life-planetary-scale.html#jCp

Probably the way everyone should think of it most if not everything is interconnected.

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists study organization of life on a planetary scale

When we think of life on Earth, we might think of individual examples ranging from animals to bacteria. When astrobiologists study life, however, they have to consider not only individual organisms, but also ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-scientists-life-planetary-scale.html#jCp

Probably the way everyone should think of it most if not everything is interconnected.

Yes.

Planetary life starts from the beginning with a star supplying energy, elements and chemicals over time interact as a whole process eventually becomes self replicating and then organized through everything being interconnected.

After reading the Conditions for Life Thread, I guess life could start in many different ways.

I think its safe to assume that for most life in the universe, life starts on planets that are orbiting a suitable star.

Its possible life could start in some experiment on the space station but that’s different. Any sort of small experiment humans do is much different to that of a planet starting a life process with its star supplying energy.

Remove the star, no life can start, remove the planet, no life can start.

I might be possible to generate life in space but that would involve another process.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists study organization of life on a planetary scale

When we think of life on Earth, we might think of individual examples ranging from animals to bacteria. When astrobiologists study life, however, they have to consider not only individual organisms, but also ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-scientists-life-planetary-scale.html#jCp

Not sure without studying the paper if this is obvious, impossible, or subtle.

> In so doing, they uncovered scaling laws governing biochemical diversity and network structure that are shared across levels of organization from individuals to ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole.

Well that’s bleedin’ obvious. It’s called evolution. We’ve known since the early 1970s that ferredoxins, histones and cytochrome C, RNA and protein coding are preserved across nearly the total biosphere.

On the other hand, collecting this massive database is a mammoth and worthwhile task.