Friday 28 November 2014

Could DNA have seeded earth? DNA survived blastoff and re-entry on the skin of a rocket.

From Science Daily News: 
Scientists Dr. Cora Thiel and Professor Ullrich dabbed DNA on the outside of the rocket. The DNA survived and still worked.  We could have been seeded here.   Our rockets could accidentally seed another world.

"The genetic material DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere -- and still pass on genetic information. A team of scientists from UZH obtained these astonishing results during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission.  Applied to the outer shell of the payload section of a rocket using pipettes, small, double-stranded DNA molecules flew into space from Earth and back again. After the launch, space flight, re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and landing, the so-called plasmid DNA molecules were still found on all the application points on the rocket from the TEXUS-49 mission. And this was not the only surprise: For the most part, the DNA salvaged was even still able to transfer genetic information to bacterial and connective tissue cells."
Source

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