linkedin post 2019-01-13 06:40:27

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UNKNOWNS. ‘The Great Unconformity (GU), a global erosion surface separating Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks, represents ∼100–1000 m.y. of missing geologic time. The timing of erosion and amount of denudation leading to the formation of the GU remains largely unknown, but could provide important constraints to models of cratonic vertical movements during the supercontinent cycle, and estimates of sediment production that influenced Neoproterozoic ocean-atmosphere chemistry.” https://lnkd.in/dDNSQTU View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-13 06:37:45

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GRAND CANYON UNCONFORMITY. “Within the Grand Canyon, the Great Unconformity represents a period of about 175 million years between the Tonto Group and the youngest subdivision, the Sixtymile Formation, of the Grand Canyon Supergroup. At the base of the Grand Canyon Supergroup, where it truncates the Bass Formation, the period of time represented by this angular unconformity increases to about 725 million years. Where the Tonto Group overlies the Vishnu Basement Rocks, the Great Unconformity represents a period as much as 1.2 to 1.6 billion years of time.” https://lnkd.in/ddDSSXe View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-13 06:35:59

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CYCLIC TECTONICS. “The "great" unconformities of regional or continental scale (in both geography and chronology) are associated with either global changes in eustatic sea level or the supercontinent cycle, the periodic merger of all the continents into one approximately every 500 million years.” https://lnkd.in/ddDSSXe View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-13 06:33:38

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CALCIFICATION CAMP. “That puts the relationship between the Great Unconformity and the Cambrian explosion in a much different light. The Great Unconformity may not simply be a gap in the record of early evolution of multicellular life with fossilizable hard parts. Instead, the seawater changes caused by the erosion that created the Great Unconformity may have driven the rise of biological calcification.” https://lnkd.in/dtYSB5v View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-13 06:30:43

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ISOTOPE SUPPORT. “Support for this idea can also be found in the ratio of strontium isotopes. Strontium-87 mainly makes it into the ocean through the breakdown of continental rocks, whereas strontium-86 comes from mid-ocean ridges. The high point for strontium-87 over the past 900 million years occurred during the Cambrian, suggesting weathering peaked around then. The ratio of neodymium-143 to neodymium-144 (also known as εNd) also helps out by indicating the age of those continental rocks being weathered. Around the time that strontium-87 peaked, εNd hit a low point as continental weathering cut into older and older rocks.’ https://lnkd.in/dtYSB5v View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-17 04:14:53

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PROBING THE POSSIBLE. "Artificial life calls special attention to the question of whether there can be forms of life that are fundamentally different from the familiar biological instances. For example, life as we know it encodes information needed to re-create structures that cannot be copied directly (such as proteins) in combinatorial structures that can be copied generically (genes)." https://lnkd.in/dsMZPii View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-15 04:49:35

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SHOCK VALUE. “The announcement last week that a robot had been granted Saudi Arabian citizenship – a gimmick, admittedly – was nevertheless reported as yet another step in the direction of our much-anticipated demise.The rise of the robots need not spell downfall for humans.” https://lnkd.in/d8_7UUC View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-16 07:18:51

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"ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRIES are computer-based model systems composed of objects (abstractions of molecules), which are generated by collision between existing objects according to a predefined interaction law. The collisions may be purely random or allow the buildup of spatial correlations, as in diffusion systems. Bimolecular chemistry is assumed to be sufficient to display the transition to life, but this may involve complex structures." https://lnkd.in/dsMZPii View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2019-01-16 07:17:29

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BEDAU'S GAUNTLET. "Demonstrate an Artificial Chemistry in Which the Transition to Life Occurs in Silico. Few questions concerning living systems are as fundamental as the spontaneous generation of life, and a constructive context in which to explore this issue is artificial chemistry." https://lnkd.in/dsMZPii View in LinkedIn
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