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Early Earth Was Purple, Study Suggests »

Posted by: JamesMarcus 1 year, 5 months ago

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The 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.

Read Full Story at news.yahoo.com

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Comments So Far: 79
  • 95%
    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.

      Reply

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    JamesMarcus1 year, 5 months ago

    Netscape Anchors can "pin" a story to the top box the moment it hits the site. Everything else on the front page is determined by community voting.

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    1 Reply

    • 100%
      joeblowe1 year, 5 months ago

      Which explains how fluffy stories about Anna Nichole's baby daddy get put up there instead of real news. I guess that's OK - a slow news day PROBABLY means there were fewer people dying somewhere today.

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    • 0%
      eviln3d1 year, 5 months ago

      Anchors suck. Their dumb stories push down others that are more important.

      Since time travel isn't possible what difference does it make if early plants were purple, pink or invisible. No ones bringing them back and no one cares.

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        eviln3d1 year, 5 months ago

        Anchors keep it from being better than it is. Next question.

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      • 0%
        DeltaX1 year, 5 months ago

        Alexa keeps pointing down...

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        • 0%
          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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        • 0%
          atypicalguy1 year, 5 months ago

          I wonder what would happen if these purple plants were reengineered and reintroduced into the ecosystem.

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          4 Replies

          • 80%
            SantaM1 year, 5 months ago

            LIFE AS WE KNOW IT WOULD PERISH AT THE FEET OF MUTATED PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS!

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            3 Replies

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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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          • 0%
            Worldview1 year, 5 months ago

            "Purple rain, purple rain . . . I want to see you dancing in the purple rain . . ."

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            2 Replies

          • 0%
            slate1 year, 5 months ago

            Oh you know what they say about the color purple?

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            3 Replies

            • 0%
              slate1 year, 5 months ago

              LOL who knows,,,, I like purple and I'm not gay,,,, I was just being curt

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              1 Reply

            • 100%
              doppich1 year, 5 months ago

              I thought purple was royalty, and pink was gay. I guess I'm really out of touch with color trends...

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            • 67%
              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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              • 0%
                OnlyTheTruth1 year, 5 months ago

                Purple Haze ...

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                1 Reply

                • 0%
                  invest071 year, 5 months ago

                  scuze me while I kiss the sky

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                • 0%
                  oldgringo1 year, 5 months ago

                  My six year-old new this all along...just look at Barney!

                  Reply
                  • 73%
                    Petom11 year, 5 months ago

                    we all came out to Montreaux

                    on the Lake Geniva shoreline...

                    Reply
                    • 83%
                      aceofspades11 year, 5 months ago

                      They had to make a color change because nothing rhymes with "purple"

                      But maybe there really were purple cows at one time

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                      2 Replies

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                        DeadHead131 year, 5 months ago

                        I've never seen a purple cow, I never hope to see one. But I will tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.

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                        1 Reply

                    • 73%
                      itsme21 year, 5 months ago

                      pretty!

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                      • 0%
                        Gee35Coupe1 year, 5 months ago

                        nice

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                        • 0%
                          rimbaud1 year, 5 months ago

                          That is sooo gay!

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                          • 100%
                            Joeski1124001 year, 5 months ago

                            a purple planet? Does than mean that God,or higher power,is really Donny Osmond??

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                            • 0%
                              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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                                  • 0%
                                    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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                                        • 88%
                                          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.

                                          Reply
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                                          JamesMarcus

                                          James 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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