Early Earth Was Purple, Study Suggests »
Posted by: JamesMarcus 1 year, 5 months agoThe earliest life on Earth might have been just as purple as it is green today, a scientist claims. Ancient microbes might have used a molecule other than chlorophyll to harness the Sun's rays, one that gave the organisms a violet hue.
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Comments So Far: 79
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trippyocean1 year, 5 months ago
Now, that was a cool story. It is interesting to hear about the Earth from earlier times in history.
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invest071 year, 5 months ago
What I find interesting is that it is pure speculation. There was no data or observation or other study presented which even remotely supports this hypothesis.
The fact is that scientists haven't a clue as to how the photosyntesis process began. None of the traditional Darwinian models include any reasonable explanation of the origin of photosynthesis.
So what do scientists do when their theories don't work? They invent new theories which, in the long run, won't work either.
These people are not scientists. They are opportunists seeking to further a stagnant career or solicit research funds to study something they invented.
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LordyLordy1 year, 5 months ago
Explains all those little old ladies I see wandering around wearing purple clothes, red hats...and they look quite fetching in them!
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joeblowe1 year, 5 months ago
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AnvilHead1 year, 5 months ago
Of course quite a few of these early organism survive to this day, as evidenced by the DNA record, which is much more comprahensive than the fossil record. And new discoveries are being made all the time as evidenced by the recent discovy of primitive and other life forms surviving on methane seeps in the deep ocean.
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espse1 year, 5 months ago
Your ignorance and bullheaded political ideology trumps logic and intelligence, must be a con. Anti-scientific stupidity seems to be the ideal of the republicowards at the moment, flip floping like moral cowards and sophists if results of scientific research prove your political ideology to be harmful or just plain wrong. But since you are yellow cowards, afraid to admit the failure of your idiotic myopic policies, you do the only thing left, slander, slander, slander, slander, slander, slander, swift boat, swift boat, attack the messanger, set up straw men to distract the arguement, and rely on the 100 % con owned american media to slander and question the character of anyone objectively presenting results. Here, you object because these non-chlorophyll based life forms would destroy your stupid moronic creationist mythology. Idiot.
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inthemiddleof1 year, 5 months ago
Speculation is the heart of science, (fill in your favorite slander here). If Science didn't have speculation and hypothesese then we wouldn't be where we are today. The man doesn't need hard data to deliver a hypothesis. And that's all this is. Even if it turns out to be wrong, at least it's an answer to a question that I'm sure more people have than just this scientist.
If this guy was really trying to pass this off as a theory he would have to provide data, but the article even points out that it is just a hypothesis.
Get out of your own little mind and learn the scientific method. You'd find it to be a bit more enlightening.
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XXanyoneXX1 year, 5 months ago
The whole argument here can easily be reversed, watch:
What I find interesting is that God is pure speculation. There is no data or observation or other study presented which even remotely supported a hypothesis of God's existence.
The fact is that believers haven't a clue as to God's nature, intentions, or anything he's ever supposed to have done. None of the traditional Christian models include any reasonable explanation of why their compassionate God would allow animals to suffer.
So what do believers do when their theories don't work? They ignore the parts that don't makes sense which, in the long run, explains nothing.
These people are not believers. They have merely been bribed by empty promises of eternal happiness and threatened with eternal torture for disbelief. If these hollow threats and promises were removed so would most of their beliefs.
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JamesMarcus1 year, 5 months ago
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eviln3d1 year, 5 months ago
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eviln3d1 year, 5 months ago
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kobzikov1 year, 4 months ago
"Since time travel isn't possible what difference does it make if early plants were purple"
First of all, time travel is not possible RIGHT NOW, but even if it was that would be irrelevant to the article.
The article actually provides examples of application of the presented hypothesis if it turned out to be true. Namely its use in determining, which planets are in the early stages of plant evolution by taking additional wavelength of radiation spectrum into account. Not to mention understanding the world around us and how it came to be that way. But if that is not important to you, then it says more about you then about the anchors.
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atypicalguy1 year, 5 months ago
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SantaM1 year, 5 months ago
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Dharma1 year, 5 months ago
ahhh, my favorite color, i just "knew" i was more "in sync" with the ancient earth than most... :-P
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Worldview1 year, 5 months ago
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DeadHead131 year, 5 months ago
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worthlesswhiteman1 year, 5 months ago
So instead of little green men on Mars there are huge black nosed witches on Earth? Yeah that's right!!
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aceofspades11 year, 5 months ago
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DeadHead131 year, 5 months ago
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LordyLordy1 year, 5 months ago
It was the 151 Barcodie that did it...(hic). It was the purple elephants, now the purple cow, and the purple ladies in their red hats....give another one barkeep! At least its purple and not green and it doesn't have a name like Ralph. Usually when I start seeing these purple thingys I end up talking to him before the night is over. (lmao)
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Joeski1124001 year, 5 months ago
a purple planet? Does than mean that God,or higher power,is really Donny Osmond??
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Joeski1124001 year, 5 months ago
or maybe Prince..or whatever the Hell he calls himself nowadays!
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Harddrive1 year, 5 months ago
Its so amazing that scientist figures it out how the earth colors look like in the early days. That's probably where Deep Purple got its name or maybe Prince figured it out before he titled his song Purple Rain. Its Purple hazing I Love it.
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Taganan1 year, 5 months ago
So many of you consider yourselves witty. You are unarmed.
There are organisms that still use retinol and some that use a different mechanism [cyanobateria]. What if the chloropyll mutation had not occurred? What about life on other planets?
Knowing this could help us find it.
Keep your eyes fixed on the ground and never consider the stars for then you may think of heaven. Think only of the Earth and you will be confined by it. See the stars and invent flight. Think only of being buried in the earth or sending your descendants to the stars.
God created a universe of uncountable stars, so it is not unthinkable that He also created life elsewhere, perhaps to a different image. Who are we to say that we are the only lifeforms created in God's image [imagination]?
I vote for the stars.
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cods1 year, 5 months ago
plese give me a break.i thought the world was flatt,or i rember it was a squar too,just think in 1000years they will say that the sun spits out a new planet evey 4000yrs and the planets just spin out to there next orbit
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Dramaturg1 year, 5 months ago
No matter what color the Earth was. Be it not red, white, black or yellow.
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espse1 year, 5 months ago
Amazing, such anti-scientific ignorance displayed in this blog. Children, sometimes research turns up knowledge that seems unusable, like relativity did 100 years ago, but as time goes by, further research and study reveal quiet useful and practical utility from the theory. Witness the anti-drugs harvested from the plants of the rainforest. Witness atomic energy from studies of uranium and relativity. Witness penicillin derived from studies on bacterial contamination of beer. If photosynthesis and life on this planet was at one time derived from other than chlorophyll, then that has major significance. Unless you're a kuckle dragging con or lib anti-scientific moron who only cares about political ideology. You know, like supporting the psychopathic Bush or suscribing to 911 truther bs. Or thinking that Jesus was a white republican con who drove a SUV and dropped bombs from F-16s. Or denying the holocost. Or slandering unions then enjoying your weekend.
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Ratskii1 year, 5 months ago
Good article James, thanks for the post. This isn't the first I've heard of the speculation though. A science teacher of mine brought it up 40 years ago.
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Submitted By:
JamesMarcusJames Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
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