[Flipside]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15458636

The details are pretty vague, but it seems one of the candidates for some unidentified IR emissions from young stars could be complex organic molecules. Needs a bit more proof, I think, but certainly fascintaing.

[StarSlayer]

C'tan? 

[Nuke]

doesn't surprise me in the least

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Me neither

[Mikes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

Reminded me. The rules of our universe are a tad :cough: more complex (or rather, we are on a level of complexity that makes it all but impossible to deduce the underlaying simplicity that everything may be based on, because every mechanism that we can ever use to analyze the universe we live in is by itself much to complex.), but I dare say we are getting to understand the underlaying principle of life's emergent complexity.

What intrigues me the most about it is... that if we ever do develop a true AI along these lines that reaches a level of understanding approaching our own... it would be the first being in existence that could really be thaught the most basic principle that its own complexity is based on. Wonder what it would think...
 
Well other than the expected humanlike response of "F*** you, I'm not a bunch of squares! I have a soul too! Thermonuclear WAR!!!"

Guess we gotta allow it to become more intelligent than ourselves before we tell it
(Or maybe we just have to become more intelligent before we get told we actually are a bunch of squares ourselves )

[TwentyPercentCooler]

C'tan? 

Yep, we're @#$%ed. No amount of zombie outbreak preparation will help against Flayed Ones. 

[Mefustae]

C'tan? 

Yep, we're @#$%ed. No amount of zombie outbreak preparation will help against Flayed Ones. 

Oh yeah, this happens right at the same time GW is re-vamping the Necron codex. Coincidence? I THINK NOT

Back OT and away from scary living star-doom; this is actually kind of interesting. However, I'd like to see some info that's a little less vague before I'll fully commit. Colour my cynical, but this sounds way too intriguing to be fully accurate.

[NGTM-1R]

C'tan? 

Starborn. (Mindgames, do you remember it?)

[Firstdragon34]

Massive stars explode out heavier elements such as iron and calcium.

[watsisname]

Yeah, but that's quite a different matter -- we're talking about complex and organic molecules, not just elements.

All elements from helium to iron are produced by stellar fusion (excluding primordial helium and traces of lithium, which were synthesized after the Big Bang).  Supernovae explosions synthesize all of the elements and disperse them into the ISM.

However, the generation of organic molecules is much more involved, and we don't really understand all of what's going on yet.  This paper seems to suggest that they can be created in the circumstellar disks around young stars.

[Dragon]

Interesting. Perhaps it'll help explaining how life on Earth had started. I wonder how complex are these molecules (if by "organic molecules" you mean "methane", then it might not mean much).

[Flipside]

Apparently it's a long chain that is a mixture of Aromatic molecules with Aliphatic links between them. So, more complex than Methane, but not vastly complex structures.

That said though, it does make you stop to wonder how much of the 'preparation' for organic life on Earth took place before the material was even on the surface of the planet, and how common is the event on a Universal scale? If most young stars do this, then you have the potential for almost every inner proto-planet to be subjected to situations that could lead to life developing if the environment permits.

[karajorma]

Starborn. (Mindgames, do you remember it?)

I vaguely recall something by that name.