JT – why we need to look back at the genesis is because it helps us understand how everything is made. When we understand that, we can predict the future, and, more importantly, we can manipulate the future. We all enjoy the luxuries and advances in (to name a sliver of lifestyle) medicine, entertainment, travel, communication, etc. etc. that stem directly from this sort of hypothesizing. So – it is very very important; and it’s critical that IOL and the media convey it to us so we can have this sort of dialogue and stimulate people to understand and get behind these important efforts. Without this dialogue, they’ll continue to just be warm vibrating carrots with nothing meaningful to add. Spock 101 – it doesn’t say that evolution of *human* life began somewhere else – it merely suggests that the origin of *all* life – that diverged into mushrooms, coral, oaks, flu viruses, elephants, etc – had an origin elsewhere. Panspermia (as it’s called) is plausible; and, if true, throws open a whole raft of new possibilities for life generally. It’s a bit worrying that people’s minds are like a rubber band with one end attached to a biblegod. You can stretch that mind in the direction of reality, but, booooiiing… ultimately they’ll snap back like robots to the fairy tale and clinging to it like a security blanket. It’s a big sky out there, yes – and intimidating. But knowledge can set you free. All of us got past Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny – but some just can’t seem to give up on the Invisible Man in The Sky. If Jack and the Beanstalk, Adam’s Rib = Women, Humpty Dumpty, Jonah and Whale, Pinochio etc were read to you as part of the bible in childhood and you had to pick out which nonsense was nonsense and which was really bible – do you think you’d be able to? Yes… those bible fables are that nutty when you think about it!

@Megamind..if we boil it down to quantam mechanics, the nature of the relationships and the strangenes off the bonds are unpredictable and beautiful. An intellegence had to have come up with it...Aliens are hogwash, the genius of the sub-atomic particles are beyond our true grasp. Scientists merely observe and report. Our minds eye does the rest of the intuitive work. It all boils down to which side of our intuitive nature we trust the most. I prefer the Intellegent God aspect, science fact over an Intellegeant God makes life so dull. Whats the fun in choosing science as a god or the superior angle,just so we can say "boy im a Clever Scientest...look at me and my big brains..someone give me a Nobel prize and write a book about it so everyone will like me. Screw that God is awesome, face it our pee brains have alot to prove. Now off to the sports page where i can read about the Boks beating the Aussie scum on the weekend.

Nick - you are dead right - the jumbo-jet nonsense sounds good, but is debunked ages ago (Read any Richard Dawkins book, especially God Delusion & Climbing Mount Improbable); but the creationists will yabber on about it for eternity; they won't hear any argument to the contrary, they will always believe what they want to believe. They call it a virtue to be ignorant seek only ignorance. It's hard to fathom because some are intelligent enough to grasp the solutions, but they don't want solutions, they're hooked on delusion.

Mr.(?) Megamind... (that's a very handsome name your parents gave you). Yes - extremeophiles; simple life forms that can survive extraordinary environments; can survive precisely that; fiery re-entry. They've been found living in lava tubes at 400c, they've been found kilometres down living in and "off" solid rock, they've been found on the inside of nuclear reactors; so, yes, our 'brilliant scientists' (who admittedly may not be as clever or competent as Mr. Megamind) do in fact have a very valid point. Generally - ladies and gents; please, this weekend's going to be miserable; get yourself down to your nearest bookstore and pick up a few books. Even if you can't follow what they're saying (these are written by experts in their fields, so it's natural that the details will go over most of our heads - including mine) Please these books and appreciate that scientists aren't playing 'pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey' with their findings... they're not guessing wildly or repeating what voices in their heads say; they are standing on the shoulders of intellectual giants and adding the next layer of knowledge to the common pool by working through mountains of data, testing, and peer review. For your own good: before you throw out some arrogant opinion here, remember the adage: "Better to remain silent and appear stupid, than open it and remove all doubt". Really - that is good advice. Stick with the facts, not the hype.

It's fantastic how diverse opinions can be, hey. Fortunately, opinions are just that... opinions - like religion; made up in people's heads, mainly from voices ‘heard’; and conceived of 'feelings', and that ever-brilliant piece of insight: "I can't figure it out, so it must be magicgodthe spaghetti monster that made it all”. Fortunately, facts are facts... they aren’t based on feelings or imaginings. Facts and science rely on hypothesis, observation, data, hypothesis correction, theory, and field testing, and ultimately agreement with all other theory. Now - before you reject all of this with a self-righteous and arrogant assuredness that science is wrong, and your particular religionsuperstitionbible or other form of psychosis is right (and all the other religionssuperstitionsbibles and psychosis' are not)... consider that you are reading this on a LCD screen, via a computer and network, updownlinked tofrom a satellite, powered by electricity, etc. etc... all the results of the process of science described above. You are not and never will achieve this feat of communication through mysticism, no matter how many supernatural psychic powers you think you may have, or how many power crystals you may employ. You are the recipient of science's wonders - not the slave to spooky spiritual masters. At some point, you simply have to grow up.

Alkash that is a fact, but it seems our brilliant scientists forget that. But with science there's always some silly excuse to force their theories to be true

It dose not make a difference where evolution started but all the facts point to it . To put the jumbo jet together as previously stated ,give the scientists time and they will show how it was done.at least there are numerous facts pointing in that direction Creation as Santa Claus has nil , that's why its called faith .don't knock others if you have nothing to stand on but stories....

Carbon -7 The God Particle

Anyone that does not believe in evolution is a idiot. Evolution has happened - FACT. If it didn't , us humans would of existed already a long time ago! Evolution again, is unquestionable due to the fact that the oldest fossils in the world are single celled organisms. In other words.... In order for more advanced life forms to emerge, mass extintions and evolution had to occur! If it wasn't for the mass extinction of dinosaurs, humans would never of came into being. Religion and the idea of a god or creator has only been around for a short, recent time in earths (more pacifically, in human) history. By the way I am not anti-religion.... Just taking a neutral point of view. I myself believe in something 'greater' to the universe.. After all if electron and protons and other smaller subatomic particles are the building blocks of everything. We got to ask the question - who created them. Same with the origins of the universe- if the was a 'big bang', who lit the match?

But does a meteorite not heat up and burst into flames upon entering earth’s atmosphere? So you are telling me that organic molecules can withstand the intense heat, pressure, explosion and shockwave of a meteorite impact?

I think Policat is pretty much on the mark and just about the only sensible comment here.

A few lab junkies (Who are getting paid by the way) decide to make up stories at NASA and billions of other hopeless souls decide to follow. Pathetic if you ask me.

Are the 3 ingredients of life ALSO found on earth, or only in meteors? Because if they are absent from the earthsoil itself, that would mean we could have originated elsewhere. But if ALL those ingredients came from elsewhere, then we were planted here people. Sprinkle a bit of amino acid and some chemicals here, chemicals for DNA there, stir together and voila, you have a human! BTW, and maybe it was God doing the planting, so I don't think this hypothesis rules out being God's creation. It may just explain HOW the creation happened.

WHEN will the fans of "evolution" wake up to the fact that they [and Darwin] reflect a stupidity akin to believing that a hangar full of Boeing 747 spares can "evolve" into a fully assembled beautifully painted aircaft standing on an aprron - ready to fly?

@Spock101. Excellent!!!

Life began when a meteor hit the cradle of mankind - but originally I come from the Planet Krypton.

I don't understand how proving that meteors have the ingredients for life, proves evolution or that human life began somewhere other than this planet. I don't deny that it is entirely possible for meteors to have the same ingredients as the earth and that these ingredients are necessary for life - after all, the One who created the earth also created the meteors or whatever astral body they emanated from. The Bible tells us that God made humans from the 'dust of the ground', so logically the ingredients for life are found in the earth. That they are found in other astral bodies does not in itself prove the existence of life on other planets, all it proves is that the meteors and the earth have the same beginning. Don't discard the Bible account of creation simply because it doesn't suit you to acknowledge the existence of a Creator - you can't ignore the existence of a shopping mall simply because you refuse to acknowledge the designer of that mall.

Anonymous "So all the evolution science is a lie ...." Not at all. Evolution is a theory and is expounded based on the latest available data as evidence is captured. IOW It is an evolving science and until empirical evidence to the contrary is submitted will remain so. More like a forensic investigation at a murder scene. Until all the evidence has been collected analyzed and a case built up against the purported suspect, no charges can be laid. Be patient the science is in its infancy. For example, all the fossils discovered relating to the ascent of Homo sapiens will fit into the back of a small truck with room to spare. I also agree that this article is old news. The science of astrobiology and astrophysics is expanding in leaps and bounds and our technology increases so rapidly enabling them to recognize things that were impossible to identify only a few years ago.

RE Anonymous 02.03pm - Why? You obviously don't understand what they are saying and what evolution is.

Off course we are aliens... the earth isn't old enough for life to have started (evolved) here. Besides we are aliens to other being out there.