Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Mysteries of Life

When I was a kid, the world was simple. There were plants and animals. End of story.

Then it was rearranged to be little stuff versus big stuff, i.e. bacteria versus multi-cellular life.

But the story keeps getting more complicated. Here is the story from 30 years ago:

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Now there is the "web of life" and much more complicated story:

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Yep... now they claim "giant viruses" as a 4th domain of life. It just gets wierder and wierder the older I get. next thing you know they will add in a domain for Martian life and then we will be off to the races!

Carl Zimmer has an article in Discover magazine that argues that there are 4 domains of life, no the 3 domains of 30 years ago.

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