Freeman Dyson y la busqueda de vida en el sistema solar

Aquí tenéis un video de Freeman dyson, video que no tiene desperdicio, os dejo la totalidad de los subtítulos, pero para aquellos a los que un texto tan largo les pueda amedrentar os destaco una parte mucho mas pequeña de ella, que es la que me parece mas interesante y de la que voy a hablar en la entrada.

Disfrutad del video viendo a este gran científico.

I will be remembered in two hundred years.I happen to live in a little town,Princeton, in New Jersey, which every year celebrates the great event of Princeton history:the battle of Princeton.
Which was in fact a very important battle.It was the first battle that George Washington won in fact. Pretty a much of a turning point in the War of Independence.It happened two hundred and twenty five years ago. It was actually a terrible disaster for Princeton.The town was burned down.It was in the middle of winter, and it was a very very severe winter.And about a quarter of all the people in Princeton died that winter from hunger and cold.But nobody remembers that.
What they remember is of course, the great triumph,
the Brits were beaten, and we won, and the country was born.
And so, I agree very emphatically that the pain of child birth is not remembered,
i's the child that's remembered.
And that's what we're going through at this time.


I wanted to just to talk for one minute about the future of biotechnology.
'Cause I think I know very little about that, I'm not a biologist.
So everything I know about, it can be said in one minute.
What I'm saying is that we should follow the model that has been so successful
with the electronic industry.
What really turns computers into a great success in the world as a whole
is toys.
As soon as computers became toys, when kids could come home and play with them, then the industry really took off.
That has to happen with biotech.
There's a huge community of people in the world who are practical biologists:
dog breeders, pigeons breeders, orchid breeders, rose breeders.
People who handle biology with their hands, and who are dedicated to producing
beautiful things, beautiful creatures, plants, animals, pets.
These people would be empowered with biotech.
And that would be an enormous positive step to the acceptance of biotechnology.
That will blow away a lot of the opposition.
When people will have this technology in their hands, you'll have a do-it-yourself biotech kit. "Grow your own dog, grow your own cat. Just buy the software, you design it".
I won't say anymore, you can take it on from there.
It's going to happen.
I think it has to happen before the technology becomes natural, becomes part of the human condition, something everybody is familiar with, something everybody accepts.
So let's leave that aside.
I want to talk about something quite different, which is what I know about, and that is astronomy.
I'm interested in searching for life in the universe.
And it's opened to us to introduce a new way of doing that.
That's what I'll talk about for ten minutes or whatever the time remains.
The important fact is that most of the real estate that's accessible to us (I'm not talking about the stars, I'm talking about the solar system, stuff that's within reach for spacecrafts, within reach of our earth-bound telescopes), most of the real estate is very cold and
very far from the Sun.
If you look at the solar system as we know it today,it has a few planets close to the Sun, that's where we live.
It has a fairly substantial number of asteroids between the orbit of the earth out to the orbit of Jupiter.
The asteroids are a substantial amount of real estate, but not very large, and it's not very promising for life, since most of it consists of rock and metal, mostly rock.
It's not only cold, but very dry.
So the asteroids, we don't have much hopes for.
Some interesting places a little further out, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, particularly there's a place called Europa which is, Europa is one of the moons of Jupiter, where we see a very level ice surface, which looks as if it's floating on top of an ocean.
So we believe that on Europa there's in
fact a deep ocean.
That's makes it extraordinary interesting as a place to explore.
Oceans are probably the most likely place for life to originate, just as it originated on the Earth.
So we would love to explore Europa, to go down through the ice, find out who is swimming around in the ocean, whether there are fish, or seaweed or sea monsters, or whatever that may be, that's exciting, or cephalopods.
But that's hard to do.
Unfortunately, the ice is thick.
We don't know how thick is it, probably miles thick.
So it's very expensive and very difficult to go down there, send down your submarine or whatever it is, and explore.
That's something we don't know yet how to do.
There are plans to do it, but it's hard.
Go out a bit further, you find that behind the orbit of Neptune, way out, far from the Sun.
That's were the real estate really begins.
You find millions or trillions or billions of objects, which in what we called the Kuiper belt, or the Oort cloud.
These are clouds of small objects, which appear as comets...when they fall close to the sun.
Mostly they just live out there in the cold of the outer solar system.
But they are biologically very interesting indeed, because they consist primarily of ice, with other minerals, which are just the right ones for developing life.
So if life could be established out there, it would have all the essentials:
chemistry and sunlight, everything that's needed.
So, what I'm proposing, is there is where we should be looking for life rather than on Mars.
Mars is of course also a very promising and interesting place.
But we can look outside, very cheaply, and in a simple fashion.
And that's what I'm going to talk about.
There's a... Imagine that life originated on Europa, and it was sitting in the ocean for billions of years.
It's quite likely that it would move out of the ocean on to the surface, just as it did on the Earth.
Staying in the ocean and evolving in the ocean for two billion years, finally came out onto the land, and then of course it had a much greater freedom, and a much greater variety of creatures developed on the land that it had ever been possible into the ocean.
The step from the ocean to the land was not easy.
But it happened.
If life had originated on Europa, in the ocean,
it could also have moved out onto the surface.
There wouldn't been any air there. It's a vacuum.
It's out in the cold.
But it's still could have come.
You could imagine the plants growing up like kelp through cracks in the ice, growing on the surface.
What would they need in order to grow on the surface ?
They'd need first of all to have a thick skin to protect themselves from losing water through the skin.
So they would have to have something like a reptilian skin.
But better, what is more important is That they would have to concentrate sunlight. The sunlight in Jupiter, on the satellites of Jupiter, is 25 times fainter that is is here, since Jupiter is 5 times as far from the sun.
So they would have to have, these creatures which I call sun flowers which I imagine living on the surface of Europa, would have to have either lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight, so they could keep themselves warm on the surface.
Otherwise, they would be at a temperature of -150, which is certainly not favorable for developing life,at least of the kind we know.
But if they simply could grow, like leaves, little lenses and mirrors to concentrate sunlight, then they could keep warm on the surface, they could enjoy all the benefits of the sunlight, and have roots going down into the ocean.
Life then could flourish much more.
So why not look ?
Of course, it's not very likely that it's life on the surface of Europa.
None of these things is likely.
But my philosophy is: look for what's detectable,not for what's probable.There's a long history in astronomy of unlikely things turning out to bethere.
I mean the finest example of that was radioastronomy as a whole.
This was... originally, when radioastronomy began, Mr Jansky, at the Bell labs, detected radio-waves coming from the sky, and the regular astronomers were scornful about this.
They said, "it's alright, you can detect radio waves from the Sun"
"but the Sun is the only object in the universe that's close enough"
"and bright enough actually to be detectable."
"You could easily calculate the radio waves from the Sun are fairly faint."
"And everything else in the universe is millions of times further away"
"so it certainly will not be detectable."
"So there's no point in looking."
And of course that set back the progress of radioastronomy by 20 years.
Since there's nothing there, you might as well not look.
Of course, as soon as anybody did look, which was after about 20 years, then radioastronomy really took off. As it turned out, the universe if absolutely full of all kinds of wonderful things radiating in the radio spectrum, much brighter than the Sun.
So the same thing could be true for this kind of life which I'm talking about on cold objects.
It could in fact be very abundant all other the universe.
And it's not been detected just because we haven't taken the trouble to look.
So, the last thing I want to talk about is how to detect it.
There's something called pit-lamping.
That's a phrase which I learned from my son George who is there in the audience.
That's a Canadian expression.
If you happen to want to hunt animals at night, you take a miner's lamp, which is a pit lamp, you strap it on to your forehead, so you can see the reflection in the eyes of the animals.
So, if you go out at night, you shine a flash light, the animals are bright, you see the red glow in their eyes, which is the reflection of the flash light.
And then, if you're one of these unspotting characters, you shoot the animal and take him home.
Of course, that spoils the game for the other hunters who hunt in the day time.
So, in Canada, that's illegal. In New Zealand, it's legal, cause New Zealand's farmers use this as a way of getting rid of rabbits.
The rabbits compete with the sheeps in New Zealand.So the farmers go out at night with heavily armed jeeps, and shine the headlights, and anything that doesn't look like a sheep, you shoot.
So, I've proposed to apply the same trick to looking for life in the universe.
If these creatures who are living on cold surfaces, either on Europa or further out, anywhere were you could live on a cold surface, those creatures MUST be provided with the reflectors.
In order to concentrate sunlight, they have to have lenses and mirrors in order to keep themselves warm. And when you shine sunlight at them the sunlight will be reflected back, just as it is in the eyes of an animal.
So these creatures will be bright against the cold surroundings, and the further out you go away from the sun, the more powerful this reflection will be.
So actually, this method of hunting for life gets stronger and stronger as you go further away.
Because the optical reflectors have to be more powerful so the reflected light shines out even more in contrast against the dark background.
So, as you go further away from the sun, this becomes more and more powerful.
So, in fact you can look for these Creatures with telescopes from the Earth.
Why aren't we doing it ? Simply because nobody thought of it yet.
But I hope that we shall look. We probably won't find anything.
None of these speculations may have any
bases in fact. But still, it's a good chance. And of course, if it happens it will transform our view of life altogether.
It means that the way life can live out there, it has enormous advantages as compared with living on a planet.
It's extremely hard to move from one planet to another.
We're having great difficulties at the moment, and any creatures that live on a planet are pretty well stuck.
Especially if you breathe air.
It's very hard to get from planet A to planet B, because there's no air in between.
If you breathe air, then you...you're dead ! As soon as you're off the planet, unless you have a spaceship.But, if you live in a vacuum, if you live on the surface of one of these objects, say in the Kuiper belt,an object like Pluto, or one of the small objects in the neighbourhood of Pluto. If you're living on the surface there, and you get knocked off the surface by a collision, then, it doesn't change anything all that much.You're still on a piece of ice. You could still have sunlight,and you could still survive, while you're travelling from one place to another. And then, if you run into another object, you can stay there and colonize the other object. So life could spread then from an object to another.If it exists at all in the Kuiper belt, it's likely to be very widespread.And you'll have then a great competition among species,a darwinian evolution. So there'll be a huge advantage to the species which is able to jump from one place to another without having to wait for a collision. And there'll be advantages for spreading out long kelp-like forests, of vegetations. I called these creatures sunflowers. They look like may be like sunflowers, they are to be all the time pointing towards the Sun. They will be able to spread out in space, because gravity on these objects is weak. So they can collect sunlight from a big area.So will in fact be quite easy for us to detect.So I hope in the next ten years, we'll find these creatures,and then of course our whole view of life in the universe will change.
If we don't find them...
then, we can create them ourselves.That's another wonderful opportunity that's opening,as soon as we have a little bit more understanding of genetic engineering, one of the things that you can do with your take-it-home, do-it-yourself genetic engineering kit, is to design a creature that can live on a cold satellite, a place like Europa.
So we could colonize Europa with our own creatures.
That would be a fun thing to do.In the long run, of course, it also would
make it possible for us to move out there. What's going to happen in the end, it's not going to be just humans colonizing space, it's going to be life moving out from the Earth, moving into its kingdom. The kingdom of life, of course, is going to be the universe.
If life is already there, makes it much more exciting in the short run.
But in the long run, if there is no life there, we create it ourselves, we transform the
Universe in something much more rich and
beautiful that it is today.
So again, we have a big and wonderful future to look forward.
Thank you.
(Chris Anderson): that was
incredible. Thank you.


Empieza hablando de la ingeniería genética, de como tendría que seguir el mismo desarrollo que los ordenadores, de forma que su despegue vendría cuando igual que a estos se les diese el uso de juguete.
Hay miles de personas que obtienen variedades y razas nuevas de perros, palomas orquídeas y un montón de plantas y animales mas como hobby, el disponer de estas herramientas les daría una capacidad creativa increíble.
Y daría paso a una mayor aceptación de este tipo de tecnología.
Podrías tener tu kit de ‘háztelo tu mismo’ con el que podrías crear ‘tu propio perro’, ‘tu propio gato’.
Deja este tema aquí hasta la conclusión final, para entretanto hablar de las posibilidades de vida en el sistema solar y como buscarlas.

Se centra en Europa al principio, uno de los satélites de Júpiter, actualmente uno de los sitios con mayor esperanza de encontrar vida en el sistema solar, por la posible existencia de océanos en su interior, pero con el inconveniente de que posiblemente la capa de hielo sea tan gruesa que llegar a ese océano resulte tremendamente difícil.

Si la vida existiese en los océanos de Europa, igual que en la Tierra, podría haber colonizado la tierra firme, cuatro mil quinientos millones de años son un periodo de tiempo enorme como para que el paso se hubiese podido dar, e igual que en nuestro planeta la colonización de la tierra firme les daría una capacidad de diversificación que no tendrían quedándose simplemente en el agua.
El paso no seria fácil necesitarían una piel escamosa como la de los reptiles para soportar las condiciones de vacio, a esa distancia del sol la intensidad de la luz solo es el 4%, por lo tanto esas especies de plantas podrían desarrollar lentes enormes para concentra la luz y a la vez mantenerse calientes en las gélidas condiciones de las superficie., mientras hunden sus raíces en el hielo.
A esta especie de plantas las llama ‘girasoles’

Este punto me da la posibilidad de plantearos una pregunta muy interesante, si la vida existe bajo su superficie¿ por que no hay ningún rastro de ella en la superficie del hielo?¿su ausencia en la superficie implica que no ha podido evolucionar a formas que colonicen la superficie ni siquiera en 4500 millones de años o es que simplemente no la hay?

A continuación pasa al cinturón de Kuiper y la nube de Oort, pobladas con millones de cuerpos pequeños y medianos compuestos de hielo.

Dyson sugiere que quizás esta zona nos brinde una oportunidad increíble de encontrar vida,
A diferencia de un planeta como el nuestro donde surge la vida, para la cual resulta muy difícil saltar de un planeta a otro , porque en medio se encuentran condiciones que son hostiles para esa forma de vida, en el cinturón de Kuiper una forma de vida que surgiese en un cuerpo de estos, como plutón, al pasar de un cuerpo a otro por ejemplo al ser expulsado de la superficie por un impacto gozaría de las mismas condiciones, es decir seguiría estando en trozo de hielo en el vació y con la misma luz.
Por lo que una forma de vida así se podría extender prolíficamente por todo el cinturón, creándose una competición entre formas de vida con mas capacidad de dispersarse.
Hace una interrupción para hablar de un método de caza canadiense, se trata de ir en coche por la noche y encender los focos, con lo que ves la luz reflejada en los ojos de los animales, de forma que les puedes disparar.
Algo así se podría utilizar para buscar vida en el cinturón de Kuiper, a esa distancia tendrían que tener las mimas adaptaciones que los ‘girasoles’ , necesitarían grandes lentes para concentrar luz y calor, cuanto más lejos, mayores las lentes, y si los iluminamos reflejaran cuanto mas lejos un destello mas grande.
Una búsqueda de vida como esta podría hacerse mediante telescopios.


Aquí por Fin retoma el tema del ‘háztelo tu mismo’, si finalmente no encontrásemos vida, ¿que impediría a los futuros pobladores del sistema solar, crear formas de vida como pasatiempo, igual que lo hacen los aficionados a la cría y el cultivo de razas y variedades, de crear formas de vida que pueblen el cinturón de Kuiper, Europa y demás satélites de sistema solar? creando un sistema solar y/o universo mas bello y rico, lleno de vida?

Que os parece esta idea? crear seres vosotros mismos solo limitados por vuestra imaginación?¿poblar con vuestras criaturas el sistema solar? Una versión de spore, pero real.