Tuesday, September 08, 2020
Another unique quality of life
The folks at UncommonDescent are deriding a silly-sounding proposal for alien life. The proposal actually does a good job of listing the essential qualities that distinguish life from non-life, and actually takes the ID side against Darwin. So the UD folks shouldn't be mocking it.
This little discovery stirs up a thought about another widespread and unique quality of life, not listed in the above proposal.
A new species of freshwater Crustacea has been discovered during an expedition of the desert Lut, known as the hottest place on Earth. The newly identified species belongs to the genus Phallocryptus of which only four species were previously known from different arid and semiarid regions. Dr Schwentner, who has worked with similar crustaceans from the Australian deserts in the past, adds: "These Crustaceans are able to survive for decades in the dried-out sediment and will hatch in an upcoming wet season, when the aquatic habitat refills. They are perfectly adapted to live in deserts environments. Their ability to survive even in the Lut desert highlights their resilience."The broad quality doesn't have a generalized name. Among animals, only a few small invertebrates like these shrimp and tardigrades do it in such a dramatic way. Plants, of course, do it all the time with seeds. Seeds are ALIVE, waiting decades or centuries for the next opportunity to bud and bloom. Humans can't dry up and rehydrate, but we are driven to leave abstract seeds of civilization that will last through decades or centuries of chaos. (This is probably why writing is an intrinsic function in our brains.) The current phase of total obliteration is forcing many humans into a mode of flowering and seeding, like plants flowering and seeding when they sense an approaching drought.
Labels: Grand Blueprint, Jackboot stomping forever
¶ 4:18 AM
