• 3.3 billion years old biosignatures

    From Pro Plyd@invalide@invalid.invalid to talk-origins on Tue Nov 18 21:01:21 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins


    Not sure I follow "supervised machine learning"...

    https://phys.org/news/2025-11-earth-earliest-life-billion-years.html

    A new study uncovered fresh chemical evidence of
    life in rocks more than 3.3 billion years old,
    along with molecular traces showing that
    oxygen-producing photosynthesis emerged nearly a
    billion years earlier than previously thought.

    The international team, led by researchers at the
    Carnegie Institution for Science, paired
    cutting-edge chemistry with artificial intelligence
    to reveal faint chemical "whispers" of biology
    locked inside ancient rocks. Using machine
    learning, the researchers trained computers to
    recognize subtle molecular fingerprints left behind
    by living organisms, even when the original
    biomolecules have long since degraded.
    ...
    Earth's earliest life left behind little in the way
    of molecular traces. The few fragile remnants such
    as ancient cells and microbial mats were buried,
    crushed, heated, and fractured within Earth's
    restless crust before being thrust back to the
    surface. These transformations all but obliterated
    biosignatures holding vital clues to the origins
    and early evolution of life.

    The new work suggests that the distribution of
    biomolecular fragments found in old rocks still
    preserves diagnostic information about the
    biosphere, even if no original biomolecules
    remain.
    ...


    Paper here

    https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514534122
    Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean
    rocks identified by pyrolysisrCoGCrCoMS and
    supervised machine learning

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  • From RonO@rokimoto557@gmail.com to talk-origins on Thu Nov 20 10:43:14 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/18/2025 10:01 PM, Pro Plyd wrote:

    Not sure I follow "supervised machine learning"...

    https://phys.org/news/2025-11-earth-earliest-life-billion-years.html

    A new study uncovered fresh chemical evidence of
    life in rocks more than 3.3 billion years old,
    along with molecular traces showing that
    oxygen-producing photosynthesis emerged nearly a
    billion years earlier than previously thought.

    The international team, led by researchers at the
    Carnegie Institution for Science, paired
    cutting-edge chemistry with artificial intelligence
    to reveal faint chemical "whispers" of biology
    locked inside ancient rocks. Using machine
    learning, the researchers trained computers to
    recognize subtle molecular fingerprints left behind
    by living organisms, even when the original
    biomolecules have long since degraded.
    ...
    Earth's earliest life left behind little in the way
    of molecular traces. The few fragile remnants such
    as ancient cells and microbial mats were buried,
    crushed, heated, and fractured within Earth's
    restless crust before being thrust back to the
    surface. These transformations all but obliterated
    biosignatures holding vital clues to the origins
    and early evolution of life.

    The new work suggests that the distribution of
    biomolecular fragments found in old rocks still
    preserves diagnostic information about the
    biosphere, even if no original biomolecules
    remain.
    ...


    Paper here

    https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514534122
    Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean
    rocks identified by pyrolysisrCoGCrCoMS and
    supervised machine learning


    https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-spots-ghost-signatures-ancient-life-earth

    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the traces
    of photosynthetic life. 3.3 billion years is around the time that there
    may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria and archaea both
    would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic and photosynthetic
    life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Ron Okimoto

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  • From sticks@wolverine01@charter.net to talk-origins on Thu Nov 20 16:00:21 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/20/2025 10:43 AM, RonO wrote:


    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the traces
    of photosynthetic life.-a 3.3 billion years is around the time that there may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria and archaea both would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic and photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Also, the original link also points to further reading at the bottom of
    the article with a link that was here awhile back.

    <https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-potential-biosignature-mars-astrobiologist.html>

    "These minerals may have formed on the rock when ancient microbes used chemical reactions to produce energy. But chemical reactions not related
    to life can also produce these minerals under certain conditions."

    And this commendable sentence:

    "Now, scientists are looking into the explanations that wouldn't require
    life to form these features on the sample."

    My point is, the subject of this piece, "Earth's earliest life 3.3
    billion years ago revealed by faint biosignatures" is the kind of thing
    I object to. Not the work, but the way it gets framed. Reading the
    title, you would think they have found evidence of life from 3.3 billion
    years ago. But when you dig in, they simply have not and are continuing
    their work. One has to wonder why they omitted the "potential" in their description in the recent article? This is a far too common way of
    doing things where previous work is cited and used to further the
    importance of a finding, without having to repeat the problems. It's dishonest.
    --
    Science doesn't support Darwin. Scientists do.

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  • From John Harshman@john.harshman@gmail.com to talk-origins on Thu Nov 20 17:13:42 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/20/25 2:00 PM, sticks wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 10:43 AM, RonO wrote:


    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the traces
    of photosynthetic life.-a 3.3 billion years is around the time that
    there may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria and
    archaea both would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic and
    photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Also, the original link also points to further reading at the bottom of
    the article with a link that was here awhile back.

    <https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-potential-biosignature-mars-astrobiologist.html>

    "These minerals may have formed on the rock when ancient microbes used chemical reactions to produce energy. But chemical reactions not related
    to life can also produce these minerals under certain conditions."

    And this commendable sentence:

    "Now, scientists are looking into the explanations that wouldn't require life to form these features on the sample."

    My point is, the subject of this piece, "Earth's earliest life 3.3
    billion years ago revealed by faint biosignatures" is the kind of thing
    I object to.-a Not the work, but the way it gets framed.-a Reading the title, you would think they have found evidence of life from 3.3 billion years ago.-a But when you dig in, they simply have not and are continuing their work.-a One has to wonder why they omitted the "potential" in their description in the recent article?-a This is a far too common way of
    doing things where previous work is cited and used to further the
    importance of a finding, without having to repeat the problems.-a It's dishonest.

    Mind you, the Pilbara stromatolites are clearly fossils of living cyanobacterial colonies, and they're already a bit older than that. You
    might also consider looking at the primary literature instead of science journalism, which is heavy on the hype.

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  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@admin@127.0.0.1 to talk-origins on Fri Nov 21 12:01:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On Thu, 20 Nov 2025 10:43:14 -0600
    RonO <rokimoto557@gmail.com> wrote:

    []

    https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-spots-ghost-signatures-ancient-life-earth

    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the traces
    of photosynthetic life. 3.3 billion years is around the time that there
    may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria and archaea both would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic and photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Eh? wasn't the Earth still molten back then?
    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

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  • From RonO@rokimoto557@gmail.com to talk-origins on Fri Nov 21 08:48:37 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/20/2025 4:00 PM, sticks wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 10:43 AM, RonO wrote:


    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the traces
    of photosynthetic life.-a 3.3 billion years is around the time that
    there may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria and
    archaea both would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic and
    photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Also, the original link also points to further reading at the bottom of
    the article with a link that was here awhile back.

    <https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-potential-biosignature-mars- astrobiologist.html>

    "These minerals may have formed on the rock when ancient microbes used chemical reactions to produce energy. But chemical reactions not related
    to life can also produce these minerals under certain conditions."

    And this commendable sentence:

    "Now, scientists are looking into the explanations that wouldn't require life to form these features on the sample."

    My point is, the subject of this piece, "Earth's earliest life 3.3
    billion years ago revealed by faint biosignatures" is the kind of thing
    I object to.-a Not the work, but the way it gets framed.-a Reading the title, you would think they have found evidence of life from 3.3 billion years ago.-a But when you dig in, they simply have not and are continuing their work.-a One has to wonder why they omitted the "potential" in their description in the recent article?-a This is a far too common way of
    doing things where previous work is cited and used to further the
    importance of a finding, without having to repeat the problems.-a It's dishonest.


    Your problem is that we have other evidence that life existed on this
    planet over 3 billion years ago. They have found fossil stromatolites
    like the stromatolites still formed by bacteria today in rocks over 3.4 billion years old. These are not just chemical traces.

    Researchers are just looking for more different types of evidence for
    life. We already have other evidence that life existed at this time.

    The article notes that the chemical signatures are not the oldest traces
    of life. It was just a different means of identifying evidence that
    past life has left behind, and like I noted if they find older
    sedimentary rocks they could do the same analysis.

    Ron Okimoto

    Ron Okimoto

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  • From sticks@wolverine01@charter.net to talk-origins on Fri Nov 21 10:27:44 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/21/2025 8:48 AM, RonO wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 4:00 PM, sticks wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 10:43 AM, RonO wrote:


    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the
    traces of photosynthetic life.-a 3.3 billion years is around the time
    that there may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria
    and archaea both would have contained the genes for both chemotrophic
    and photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly existed
    with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can find the
    right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in rocks that old.

    Also, the original link also points to further reading at the bottom
    of the article with a link that was here awhile back.

    <https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-potential-biosignature-mars-
    astrobiologist.html>

    "These minerals may have formed on the rock when ancient microbes used
    chemical reactions to produce energy. But chemical reactions not
    related to life can also produce these minerals under certain
    conditions."

    And this commendable sentence:

    "Now, scientists are looking into the explanations that wouldn't
    require life to form these features on the sample."

    My point is, the subject of this piece, "Earth's earliest life 3.3
    billion years ago revealed by faint biosignatures" is the kind of
    thing I object to.-a Not the work, but the way it gets framed.-a Reading
    the title, you would think they have found evidence of life from 3.3
    billion years ago.-a But when you dig in, they simply have not and are
    continuing their work.-a One has to wonder why they omitted the
    "potential" in their description in the recent article?-a This is a far
    too common way of doing things where previous work is cited and used
    to further the importance of a finding, without having to repeat the
    problems.-a It's dishonest.


    Your problem is that we have other evidence that life existed on this
    planet over 3 billion years ago.-a They have found fossil stromatolites
    like the stromatolites still formed by bacteria today in rocks over 3.4 billion years old.-a These are not just chemical traces.

    Researchers are just looking for more different types of evidence for life.-a We already have other evidence that life existed at this time.

    The article notes that the chemical signatures are not the oldest traces
    of life.-a It was just a different means of identifying evidence that
    past life has left behind, and like I noted if they find older
    sedimentary rocks they could do the same analysis.

    Your problem is that both you and John seem to think I was questioning
    the dating, which if you read it again you will clearly see I was not.
    That is an entirely separate area of interest, but not what my reply was
    about at all.
    --
    Science doesn't support Darwin. Scientists do.

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  • From RonO@rokimoto557@gmail.com to talk-origins on Fri Nov 21 12:08:43 2025
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    On 11/21/2025 10:27 AM, sticks wrote:
    On 11/21/2025 8:48 AM, RonO wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 4:00 PM, sticks wrote:
    On 11/20/2025 10:43 AM, RonO wrote:


    Science News claims that they used AI analytics to identify the
    traces of photosynthetic life.-a 3.3 billion years is around the time >>>> that there may have only been two surviving lineages of eubacteria
    and archaea both would have contained the genes for both
    chemotrophic and photosynthetic life.

    The last common ancestor of eubacteria and archaea supposedly
    existed with these atributes 4.2 billion years ago, so if they can
    find the right rocks they may be able to detect photosynthesis in
    rocks that old.

    Also, the original link also points to further reading at the bottom
    of the article with a link that was here awhile back.

    <https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-potential-biosignature-
    mars- astrobiologist.html>

    "These minerals may have formed on the rock when ancient microbes
    used chemical reactions to produce energy. But chemical reactions not
    related to life can also produce these minerals under certain
    conditions."

    And this commendable sentence:

    "Now, scientists are looking into the explanations that wouldn't
    require life to form these features on the sample."

    My point is, the subject of this piece, "Earth's earliest life 3.3
    billion years ago revealed by faint biosignatures" is the kind of
    thing I object to.-a Not the work, but the way it gets framed.
    Reading the title, you would think they have found evidence of life
    from 3.3 billion years ago.-a But when you dig in, they simply have
    not and are continuing their work.-a One has to wonder why they
    omitted the "potential" in their description in the recent article?
    This is a far too common way of doing things where previous work is
    cited and used to further the importance of a finding, without having
    to repeat the problems.-a It's dishonest.


    Your problem is that we have other evidence that life existed on this
    planet over 3 billion years ago.-a They have found fossil stromatolites
    like the stromatolites still formed by bacteria today in rocks over
    3.4 billion years old.-a These are not just chemical traces.

    Researchers are just looking for more different types of evidence for
    life.-a We already have other evidence that life existed at this time.

    The article notes that the chemical signatures are not the oldest
    traces of life.-a It was just a different means of identifying evidence
    that past life has left behind, and like I noted if they find older
    sedimentary rocks they could do the same analysis.

    Your problem is that both you and John seem to think I was questioning
    the dating, which if you read it again you will clearly see I was not.
    That is an entirely separate area of interest, but not what my reply was about at all.

    Over hype of findings in news articles is commonly discussed here. They
    are looking for evidence of life where they expect to find it. There is already evidence that life existed at that time. They aren't just
    making junk up to claim that life existed in those rocks. They are
    looking for chemical signatures that life leaves behind in the
    sedimentary layers that become rock. Your objection to the over hype is noted, but your objection doesn't change the reality that you can't
    accept. As I noted there is other evidence of fossil stromatolites over
    3.4 billion years old. You know that you have an objection to that
    reality, but your issue with this study doesn't matter about what you
    can't accept.

    You claim to be some type of YEC. YEC is still are the largest portion
    of creationist support for the ID creationist scam. YEC have likely
    been the victims of all the bait and switch ploys that the ID perps have
    had to run. The ID perps sell the ID scam, but only give the rubes a
    stupid obfuscation and denial switch scam that they tell the rubes has
    nothing to do with creationism nor ID. The last bait and switch went
    down on the West Virginia legislature, and even after the bait and
    switch had gone down and the legislator had, had to remove mentioning ID
    from the legislation and replace it with switch scam language, she still claimed that ID could be taught in the West Virginia public schools, and
    had to have the bait and switch run on her again.

    https://scienceandculture.com/2024/03/west-virginia-passes-bill-protecting-teacher-rights-to-answer-student-questions-on-scientific-theories/

    https://www.discovery.org/f/1453/

    This is the Educator's briefing packet where the ID perps claim that the Kitzmiller decision was wrong, and that even though ID was found to be
    illegal to teach in Dover that it is still legal to teach the junk
    elsewhere.

    The Bait and Switch goes down every single time that YEC creationists
    want to teach the junk in the public schools. Most of the ID perps are
    OEC. Luskin claims to have gotten his PhD studying rocks around 2
    billion years old. Their claim to be running a "Big Tent" scam that all
    types of Biblical creationists are welcomed to attend is a lie. The Top
    Six evidences for ID should tell any competent and sane person that YEC
    do not want to teach the existing ID science in the public schools. The
    Big Bang is already a topic that several creationist state school boards
    have wanted to remove from the science standards, and Kansas succeeded
    in 1999, so the YEC do not want the best evidence for ID to be
    presented. Luskin is one of the authors of the Educator's briefing
    packet and the guy describing how the bait and switch went down on the
    West Virginia legislator with the removal of intelligent design from the legislation. He even describes why the bait and switch needed to go
    down again after the legislation passed because "Unfortunately, some legislators seem to have been confused by earlier versions of the bill
    and thought that the final version of this bill was about intelligent
    design." Luskin had to be quoted in the news lying about the Discovery Institute not supporting teaching intelligent design in the public
    schools. Luskin is coauthor of the Educator's Briefing packet.

    QUOTE:
    Has ID Been Banned from Public Schools?
    No. Science teachers have the right to teach science.
    Since ID is a legitimate scientific theory, it should be
    constitutional to discuss in science classrooms and it
    should not be banned from schools. If a science teacher
    wants to voluntarily discuss ID, she should have the
    academic freedom to do so.
    END QUOTE:

    QUOTE:
    Although Discovery Institute does not advocate requiring
    the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, it
    does believe there is nothing unconstitutional about
    voluntarily discussing the scientific theory of design in
    the classroom. In addition, the Institute opposes efforts
    to persecute individual teachers who may wish to discuss
    the scientific debate over design in an objective and
    pedagogically appropriate manner.
    END QUOTE:

    The switch scam is just the same obfuscation and denial that the
    scientific creationists used to use, but they do not mention the
    creationist reason for the obfuscation and denial. Nearly all the rubes
    drop the issue instead of bend over for the switch scam because if they
    can't tell the students why they are lying to them there is no point in teaching them enough science for them to understand what they have to deny.

    You really do not want to be a YEC IDiotic supporter of the ID scam.

    Ron Okimoto


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