←back to thread

417 points fuidani | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | source
Show context
weberer ◴[] No.43714466[source]
Here's the primary source

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8

They possibly detected dimethyl sulfide, which is only known to be produced by living organisms.

replies(5): >>43714570 #>>43715076 #>>43715316 #>>43717206 #>>43718733 #
metalman ◴[] No.43714570[source]
only know to be produced.....is a whoa bessy phrase,?¿ as in 70 years ago an undergraduate figured out that dimethyl sulfide was produced by living organisms and he asked his professor what else made it, and got shrug and "nothing else I know of" and everybody has been cutting and pasting since, OR, an international team spent years and millions working on the chemistry behind dimethyl sufide in an epic known to all quest to determine it's origins. Science does have an issue with cutting and pasting ancient mistakes, and then bieng exceptionaly reluctant to change and move forward, not to mention that SETI, and the rest of "alien" research is most definitly tainted with public fantasy and entertainment industry influence, so even with one of the notoriously oderiferous sulfide compounds present, I wont hold my breath
replies(3): >>43714589 #>>43714623 #>>43714699 #
allan_s ◴[] No.43714623[source]
actually we know how to produce it without involving living organism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfide#Industrial_pr...

replies(2): >>43714731 #>>43714814 #
poulpy123 ◴[] No.43714731[source]
actually a living organism is needed to produce it this way
replies(1): >>43714809 #
xrisk ◴[] No.43714809[source]
Wikipedia says "In industry dimethyl sulfide is produced by treating hydrogen sulfide with excess methanol over an aluminium oxide catalyst”.

Which part requires a living organism?

replies(4): >>43714840 #>>43714915 #>>43715041 #>>43715322 #
1. aurareturn ◴[] No.43715322[source]

  Which part requires a living organism?
haha. Do you really need a hint?