I'm a cataloging librarian who works a couple hours a week on the reference desk. This morning I had a patron come in to ask me for sources that back up the claim that the probability that life on earth formed by random chance is so small that some kind of divine intervention is more likely. [more inside]
posted by rabbitrabbit on Feb 14, 2013 - 33 answers

Was reading about microchips that are designed to allow a few mistakes (known as 'Sloppy Chips'), and pondering equivalent kinds of 'coding' errors and entropy in biological systems. Can a fair comparison be made between the two? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jun 5, 2012 - 4 answers

Please help me find a (pre 2005) science book about the evolution of life. In one small section it covered the chemical composition of sea water and its similarity to the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. [more inside]
posted by Science! on Jul 19, 2010 - 4 answers

Why is it assumed that all forms of life evolved from a single common ancestor, instead of any number of different instances of abiogenesis?
posted by shakespeherian on Apr 8, 2010 - 25 answers

I've been reading about evolutionary computing and artificial life and suchlike. As an exercise, I would like to make a multi-player online game where players can design creatures, which would then compete for survival. [more inside]
posted by MetaMonkey on May 4, 2006 - 18 answers