Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Star birth linked to waves of life on Earth

I found this interesting article (backup link) that proposes a link between new star generation in our Milky Way galaxy with the waves of bacteria life in Earth's past. Quick quote:
"Dr Svensmark noticed that the biggest fluctuations in [bacterial lifeform] productivity coincided with high star formation rates and cool periods in Earth's climate. Conversely, during a billion years when star formation was slow, cosmic rays were less intense and Earth's climate was warmer, the biosphere was almost unchanging in its productivity."
This idea is interesting because it demonstrates just how linked we are, not just to the Earth, but the cosmos as a whole.

2 comments:

Matt said...
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Matt said...

It certainly is an interesting idea. There is so much we still have to learn about life and its origins. I suspect that in generations to come they will look back at us and consider our understanding fairly primitive.
Best wishes.