National Geographic Does A Study On Darwin 4, An Alien Ecosystem

[Seil]

With commentators like George Lucas and Stephen Hawking. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuEriu4Kjsg&feature=related)

Alien Planet is a 94 minute special on Discovery Channel about two internationally built robot probes investigating for alien life on the fictional planet Darwin IV. It was based on the book Expedition, by sci-fi/fantasy artist and writer Wayne Douglas Barlowe, who was also executive producer on thespecial. It premiered on May 14, 2005.

The show uses sophisticated computer-generated imagery, which is interspersed with interviews from such notables as Stephen Hawking, George Lucas, Michio Kaku, and Jack Horner. The show was filmed in Iceland and Mono Lake in California.

Okay, I find this really interesting, seeing as how we're going into depth on ecosystems and structure in biology class. Anyone else interested in this?

(On second thought, this belongs in Movies, doesn't it? I was trying to spark a conversation about biology, but... yeah. This doesn't go here.)

[Meister]

Psst, the subforum setup isn't intended to be quite as rigid as you make it out to be. I'd say the best place to start a biology discussion is General, seeing as the Natural Sciences subforum never quite caught on, and doesn't have to be Movies just because your discussion hook is a movie.

[Viridis]

I saw something very similar to this on Discovery years and years ago about life evolving after we'd gone, or maybe if we had never been there. I remember sentient squids swinging through trees and jellyfish with sails like rafts. Very odd.

Random: The first, huge creature in this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUBNWV87yc&feature=related) looks very cool.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Well seeing as I was just at a conference on chemical origins of life and we had a whole morning session on how to detect life in the universe this is riht up my research alley but there isn't enough detail here to make a comment-well first part anyway.
But we had some of the leading minds in the world and they were at each others throats over how you should do this so I don't know how well set up we are for research.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah these kinds of shows seem to spring up every few years. I remember a similar one about 2 planets; one where gravity was much lower, causing a variety of fish like creatures to evolve and fly through the air, some of which were whale sized, and another that was a moon in permenant geosynchronous orbit around another planet and didn't spin, so one side was always in darkness and one was always in light, which in turn caused a constant massive storm to form in the northern hemisphere. Needless to say, plant life ruled the moon world.

Interesting stuff, though it's scientific basis is questionable at best I suppose. I always preferred the theory of "what if humans never evolved on earth?", which was explored in another show. Mantis type insects became the sentient lifeform on the planet, which is creepy because I could honestly see that one happening.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Fully my favourite method of detecting life which was outlined at the conf was through measuring whether light comin from planets was polarised or not- they showed that a planet teeming with life would have light that was detectably polarised due to the nature of chiral life. They trying to get NASA to fund a satellite that could do this but NASA doesn't like ideas without giant rockets on them.

[Amake]

I've always said National Geographic would be better off if they changed the name to Galactic Geographic. Well I said it a few hours ago, so it counts.

Meanwhile I like Hawk's question. If humans had never taken charge of the planet, what's to say there should be one and only one dominant species? Let alone sentient.

I'm thinking things might have happened more slowly and harmoniously without us. Imagine birds, fish and in between all learning to talk to each other over a few million years. Well that's a weird thought, but it would be hella funny.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

It's not like humans have really taken over the planet though. Dinosaurs ruled for far far far far longer than we have been around. Humans have been around for a miniscule proportion of earth's history.

[Viridis]

It's not like humans have really taken over the planet though. Dinosaurs ruled for far far far far longer than we have been around. Humans have been around for a miniscule proportion of earth's history.

Well, I'd say we definitely changed the planet more, though.

A quality vs. quantity thing. It's not exactly like there a dinosaur empire or anything.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Yes but that change has been condensed in such a short time that without us you wouldn't have any major evolutionary diversions or anything. We may have changed the far future but we don't know what our future wil be like let alone a hypothetical non-human one.
Edit: Sure there would be some other species around but the animals around would be the same as we know them. And most of the creatures we have killed are pretty shitty creatures- like the dodo.

[BitVyper]

Well, I'd say we definitely changed the planet more, though.

I think oxygen producing plants probably beat us there.

[Seil]

Well seeing as I was just at a conference on chemical origins of life and we had a whole morning session on how to detect life in the universe this is riht up my research alley but there isn't enough detail here to make a comment-well first part anyway.

It's an interesting thought, I thought. But then again, class just let out for the semester for me so we all went to the student pub so I think streaking's an interesting thought right now. Woo!

Meanwhile I like Hawk's question. If humans had never taken charge of the planet, what's to say there should be one and only one dominant species? Let alone sentient.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/693/693483/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-20060303043211009.jpg

Well, I'd say we definitely changed the planet more, though.

While that's true, I don't think that dino-sarus-rex's had the brain capacity to create technological advancements like we have and manipulate their environments to the extent that we have. That's probably what Barrel was sayin' what with the little time dinosaurs had to evolve. Also, vote velociraptors to be the first "sentient" race, because they were very intelligent but also had limbs proportionate to their environment, so they were able to actually reach stuff.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100329.gif

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I think oxygen producing plants probably beat us there.

Ain't no pussy plants makes as much gas as me.

[Viridis]

Well, I'd say we definitely changed the planet more, though.I think oxygen producing plants probably beat us there.
I said more. As in "more than the dinosaurs". I didn't say "the most."

[Ryong]

...Whenever I think about people trying stuff like this, with theories on alien life, one thing springs to mind.

That dude who drew some stuff based on heavy biology and it ended up that every large animal in the planet he came up with had what looked like a dick but it was in fact their mouths. And the heads of all of them were where the heart was, otherwise vestigial.

I wish I remembered the link for it, though, but it was stupid.

[BitVyper]

I said more. As in "more than the dinosaurs". I didn't say "the most."

I know. Just sayin.

I mean, you wanna talk about makin things go extinct? From what I recall, when oxygen started showing up in significant quantities, it was like armageddon.

Ain't no pussy plants makes as much gas as me.

Yeah, actually we've all been meaning to talk to you about that.

[Osterbaum]

Fully my favourite method of detecting life which was outlined at the conf was through measuring whether light comin from planets was polarised or not- they showed that a planet teeming with life would have light that was detectably polarised due to the nature of chiral life. They trying to get NASA to fund a satellite that could do this but NASA doesn't like ideas without giant rockets on them.
What if there's very little life?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

In those cases it would depend on a lot of factors, such as how far away the planet was, how strong the signal was, how good your detector is and what frequencies you are looking at.
A few bacteria on the surface of a plent won't be detectable by this means- you would need multicellular organisms. To be feasible you would need a planet covered in plant-life on a similar scale to earth- that is the calculated example and in this case the effect is strong enough that pretty much any planet we can detect emissions from we could check. Animals would make it stronger.
If a planet was say mostly desert with scattered plants it would be difficult and we'd need to be very lucky.