From: Karen Kalumuck (karenk@exploratorium.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 03 2004 - 16:47:35 PST
From: "Karen Kalumuck" <karenk@exploratorium.edu> Subject: Re: pinhole Evolutionary Law? Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 16:47:35 -0800 Message-ID: <web-7412043@exploratorium.edu>
HI Raleigh!
You definitely have a more vivid imagination than I do --
I can't conjure up something that would truly defy the
laws of gravity and reduce it to rubble...that would still
be our universe... short of something explainable causing
a shift in gravity (like the low gravity rooms used by
NASA astronauts for training or am I hallucinating this?)
Please share your thoguhts! Regarding evoltuion, there
was an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation that
featured a race of immortal beings; if their species
evolved over time, I'm not sure (nor am I sure if they
reproduced!!) And the same show had the "Q" character and
continuum, also immortal but I the same questions apply to
them....And no! I don't get my science info from Star
Trek, but they are quite imaginative shows.
Because change over time is so embedded in our own
planetary history, and the history of the universe,
perhaps that's why it's a "law" and why I'm having a hard
time conceiving of proving it wrong. It's somewhat akin
to looking for living beings from other planets....if they
weren't somethign we're familiar with, even it it's a
microbe, it still has the major characteristics of life (a
reproducing metabolic entity). But if there was something
that was not carbon based and did not metabolize in any
(to us) measurable way, or reproduce, would we even
recognize it as a form of life?
Ah, Friday afternoon ruminations.
Any thoughts, pinhole gang? Take care, everyone.
---Karen
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