Earth's oceans had life 3.4 BILLION years ago!

"The existence of these microfossils in diverse locations as far back as 3.4 billion years ago suggests that the oceans probably had life in them for a very extended period of time," said Oehler. "Moreover, this has implications beyond what we have done here, suggesting the evolution of diverse life proceeded quickly."

This news is going to shake everything up. Scientists have long supposed that it takes billions of years to produce life. And yet they've found evidence of plankton existing in the oceans 3.4 billion years ago. The Earth is only 4.5 billion years old. Life: it just happens -- and very quickly!

And then there's this idiotic "news", from a completely different story:

(Phys.org) —Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world.

This appears under the blaring headline: "Life on Earth Shockingly Comes from Out of This World".

Duh. And where did Earth come from? I'll wait for your answer. (Taps fingers impatiently on desktop...) Earth didn't exist 4.6 billion years ago. Now, think of how it formed. That's right, children. Earth came from outer space! Jeebus.

Big energy news

If this pans out, we have discovered an endless source of clean energy. Take that, oil!

Note: link fixed.

NASA News

Last week NASA issued a news release.  Here is a direct quote from the release:

"The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200 billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their stars in the habitable zone."

46 billion Earths -- not in the whole universe but in our own Milky Way!   

With a number like that, it seems a statistical impossibility that we could be alone in the universe.  Not only are we not alone, we're probably one vanishingly small entry in a densely crowded field of life.

Alone?  Not by a long shot.