HN Reader

I like the "vesicle first" theory because planar sheets of reaction can form perturbations, so getting from two surfaces mixing to complex shapes and enclosures feels plausible given any significant vibration or wave.

Once you have an enclosure you have potential for osmosis and other differentials across the boundary. It's not life Jim, but it's one hell of a building block/precursor.

The linked paper is open access: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journa...

Among other things, it contains details on what amphiphiles might actually be present on Titan, a very nice set of diagrams explaining their proposed process, and proposals for lab experiments to verify whether the process is possible. I've had a soft spot for the vesicle-first theory of abiogenesis since I first heard of it, so I hope someone runs the experiments. But as far as I can tell, this is all theoretical so far.

*methane and ethane lakes

Thought it could be a useful precision.

OK so maybe they should drop a monolith there instead.

This isn't really a "finding"- it's a theoretical prediction based on observed data, along with a proposed experimental apparatus to detect such items.

I don't really get excited for theoretical predictions like this - I want experimental observations!

This feels very cynical, but what incentive does NASA have to do research showing alien life is not very likely in our solar system?

This article is a wonderfull fever dream of genisis.Though it's starting point is mundane. The whole vesicle theory is built on a physical/mechanical process ubiquitous in nature,that so far has no connection with life. Wildly suggestive and so so close, but when you look at the actual way vesicles are made, and cell walls are made, they are not the same, but have the same properties, as it lkely that physics and chemistry only allow for tiny bubbles(cue track), to form in a limited number of ways, one is an accident, and the other a mystery.

Within the Solar System we are the only life, look further, much much further. What's the probability of life developing on TWO bodies within one planetary system? Looking for another life within Solar System is exceptionalism similar to geocentrism.

Titan is completely dead, you can bet on that.

If all life starts at the microscopic scale, then the most common life in the universe will be microscopic.

Does that mean the most common forms of intelligent life in the universe may be very small too? Or is there a minimum body size required for "intelligence"?