MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 23, 2023--

Kobe Bryant is to honoured on the cover of NBA 2k24.

Starting at $499, the Pixel Tablet is Google's reentry into the Android tablet market, but

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There were subtle yet significant alterations in Olivia Dunne's Instagram pictures when compared to those posted on the LSU Gymnastics page

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & LUQUE, Paraguay--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 7, 2023--

The meaning of life is the ultimate mystery – why do we exist? And is there a point to… well… anything? These are questions to which we may never find answers, but at least we can define what “life” means in scientific terms. And yet, our understanding of what life is is changing all the time, thanks to space exploration. As scientists continue to hunt for life beyond our own world, biologists are having to rethink the meaning of the word “life” itself. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Generally, biologists explain “life” as connoting a self-sustaining chemical system which is capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolising, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli. This definition works pretty well here on Earth (although there are some important exceptions, such as viruses), but experts have pointed out that if life exists elsewhere in the universe, it may not display the same properties that we’re used to. Indeed, it might be unrecognisable as life as we know it (forget those little green men). In which case, how will we spot it if it ever crosses our path? Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker and chemist Lee Cronin think they’ve come up with a solution. The pair are now arguing that highly complex molecules found in all living creatures can’t exist thanks purely to chance. Therefore, they say, the universe must have a way of creating and reproducing complex information and retaining a “memory” of all of this.. In an interview with New Scientist, Walker, of Arizona State University, explained their radical idea on how objects come into existence. The concept, known as Assembly Theory, explains why certain complex objects have become more abundant than others by considering their histories. If the theory proves correct, it will redefine what we mean by “living” things and show that we’ve been going about the search for extraterrestrial life all wrong. In the process, we could even end up creating alien life in a laboratory, she stressed. In her discussion with New Scientist, Walker pointed out: "An electron can be made anywhere in the universe and has no history. You are also a fundamental object, but with a lot of historical dependency. You might want to cite your age counting back to when you were born, but parts of you are billions of years older. "From this perspective, we should think of ourselves as lineages of propagating information that temporarily finds itself aggregated in an individual." Assembly theory predicts that molecules produced by biological processes must be more complex than those produced by non-biological processes, as Science Alert notes. To test this, Walker and her team analysed a range of organic and inorganic compounds from around the world and outer space, including E. coli bacteria, urine, meteorites and even home-brewed beer. They then smashed up the compounds into smaller pieces and used mass spectrometry to pinpoint their molecular building blocks. They calculated that the smallest number of steps required to reassemble each compound from these building blocks was 15. And whilst some compounds from living systems needed fewer than 15 assembly steps, no inorganic compounds made it above this threshold. "Our system … allows us to search the universe agnostically for evidence of what life does rather than attempting to define what life is," Walker, Cronin, and others wrote in a 2021 Nature Communications article. The handy thing about this building block system – which they’ve dubbed the “'molecular assembly index” – is that it doesn’t rely on carbon-based organic materials to be identified. In other words, an alien could be made of entirely different stuff entirely and we’d still be able to spot it as life using the index. It also works regardless of what stage of “life” an extraterrestrial being is in – whether it is still in its infancy or has moved into a technological stage beyond our understanding. That’s because all of these states produce complex molecules which couldn’t exist in the absence of a living system. If all of this is hurting your head, let’s just get back to the basics: if there is a secret to life, it might all be down to what we do, not what we are. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Delaware officials are hoping an influx of federal infrastructure money means that future evacuations of crowded beaches during floodwaters can happen automatically through artificial intelligence

EA Sports FC 24 84+ RTTK Upgrade SBC is now live in Ultimate Team. Here's how to complete the SBC, if you should, and the best players to pack.

MrBeast has hit out against YouTubers who photoshop fake tweets of his and use them in their video thumbnails to try and boost views. In a tweet, the 25-year-old took to Twitter where he called out the clickbait - this is when creators use sensationalised or misleading headlines to reel audiences in. First, he posted a screenshot of a video thumbnail by YouTuber Bolo showing an alleged tweet by MrBeast claiming that he will be dead within the next three years, with the titled called: "MrBeast's Disease Is Worse Than You Think," about MrBeast's Crohn's disease diagnosis. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Along with this image, MrBeast wrote: "Thank god for this YouTube video or I wouldn’t have known I’m dying in three years." Then in a follow-up tweet, he added: "Can we end the trend of Photoshopping fake tweets of mine as thumbnails? Thnx [Thanks]." The response sparked a discussion online about clickbait on YouTube videos. Some people didn't feel too sympathetic towards YouTube's biggest creator. "Going viral comes with a cost. Maybe this is part of the cost," one person wrote. Another person said: "Wait.. so since you're famous now you are calling out clickbait thumbnails?? look in the mirror my guy LOL." Though many tweeted their support for MrBeast and criticised the clickbait methods some creators use to try to drive engagement. One person said: "Tbh it would be very annoying if someone made a tweet I never made." "How can they do that for a little bit more views. They are just playing with people's emotions," another person wrote. Someone else added: "I hate this, but by posting this you have given them more clout." "It’s so scary to me that people would go out of their way to Photoshop images like that and put them out into the universe…" a fourth person commented. Elsewhere, MrBeast has been accused of playing a ‘cruel’ prank on kids in the latest challenge and MrBeast wants to make a Netflix quiz show with the 'biggest prize ever'. "Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Youtube is known for helping people earn a lot and these YouTubers are among the highest earners in the world

Shell Plc’s annual shareholder meeting was disrupted for over an hour as activists protested against the company’s climate