Massive Open Online Course in Astrobiology

[John Murrell]

The University of Edinburgh are running a MOOC on astrobiology starting ‘soon’ though I cannot see a date on the front page. Details on the following link.

 

https://www.coursera.org/learn/astrobiology/home/info

 

Regards

 

John Murrell. FRAS

 

[John Murrell]

Having logged in the start date is the 10^th August with last registrations on the 18^th August. The course runs for 5 weeks.

 

John

[John Mills]

Hi John,

Is this serious stuff? I mean to say "Astro-BIOLOGY". Considering
biology is the study of life - Here's the Wikipedia definition:

"Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and
living organisms, including their structure, function, growth,
evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Modern biology is a vast and
eclectic field, composed of many branches and subdisciplines".

and considering that *no life whatsoever* has been discovered outside of
the Earth, I find the whole subject ridiculous and people who call
themselves 'Astro-biologists' a joke! Another pseudo job title name to
come out of the USA.

I'm not saying life doesn't exist outside of the Earth; probably the
universe is thriving with it, and some organic compounds such as
Formaldehyde and a few others have been detected using spectroscopy in
nebulae. However, that is hardly 'Astrobiology'. A more sensible title
would be Astro-Chemistry or an Astro-chemist, but they have been called
'Spectroscopists' for many years ;-)

How a 5 week course can be run on a subject of which there is no
scientific proof or evidence, just speculation so far, beats me!

That's my ha'pence worth said on the subject ;-)

Cheers,

John Mills



On 27/07/2015 20:20, John Murrell wrote:
> Having logged in the start date is the 10^th August with last
> registrations on the 18^th August. The course runs for 5 weeks.
>
> John
>
> *From:*John Murrell [mailto:ma...@JohnMurrell.org.uk]
> *Sent:* 27 July 2015 20:18
> *To:* alta...@googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* Massive Open Online Course in Astrobiology

>
> The University of Edinburgh are running a MOOC on astrobiology starting
> ‘soon’ though I cannot see a date on the front page. Details on the
> following link.
>
> https://www.coursera.org/learn/astrobiology/home/info
>
> Regards
>
> John Murrell. FRAS

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[John Murrell]

Hi John,

As has been described by some Astrobiology the science with no data ! However not only a 5 week course can be constructed the leader is a professor in the subject ! Perhaps you had better sign up and see if they have got any evidence for the possibility of 'life as we know it' being extended to other planets ;-)

It includes plants as well so Oxygen imbalance together with Methane is one of the markers they are trying to spot on extra solar planets. Though this needs better spectroscopes and possibly bigger telescopes than we have at present.

Some cosmology such as the multi-universe theory is also a subject with no data.

Regards

John

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[John Mills]

Hi John,

Well, my comments were written somewhat with 'tongue in cheek' ;-)

I took a look at the course syllabus and looks like its more of a
discussion of terrestrial biology and how that perhaps could be related
to what 'maybe' lying out in space waiting to be discovered? Perhaps
such as what's under the 'oceans' (is that a proven fact?) on moons such
as Europa and Encleladus or perhaps lurking in the methane lakes on
Titan... The last being very unlikely :-)

I have no problem with the concept and these days what with the number
of exoplanets being found, the probability of there being life on other
planets is high. Something I've always thought could be so, but its just
the word 'Astrobiology' or that professor and others that call
themselves 'Astrobiologists' is what grinds with me!

Until someone really discovers life (even a microbe) outside of Earth,
to me these people are simply biologists using earth life sciences to
make a living and theorizing about the subject? I agree there are some
branches of cosmology of which there is no observable evidence or data.
Just mathematical equations that seem to show that other dimensions
exist out in the universe. However, they correctly use the title of
Cosmologists which aptly describes their work...

I rest my case ;-)

Regards,

John