Is new life created during a thunderstorm?

Factual Questions
1

If we posessed the ability to make an exact replica of the human body, from synthetic skin down to the tiniest of details in the human brain (I know its impossible but just assume we could), then all we would be left with would be a synthetic human corpse.
My question is, what exactly is the ‘life’ thing that we would need to add to this body so that it would become alive?

When lightning strikes is spontaneous life ever created?
Obviously it would have to be one of the simplest forms of life, but is there any evidence of the correct combination of chemicals in the air being struck by lightning and something like an amoeba for example being created out of thin air?

Is electricity life?

On a totally different subject, If everyone on the planet was grouped into families of 2 parents + 2.4 children, and each of these families were equally spread throughout the world so no one was closer or further away from each other (forget about oceans and seas) how far away would your nearest neighbour live?
And if this was put into practise would people have to leave Britain or could Scotlands empty Higlanands take the strain for the U.K. ?

And another one, how much memory has the internet got? is it infinite or can it be completely filled?

3 questions for the price of 1, you dont see that type of generosity everyday, except in ASDA.
These questions were brought to you by your local ASDA , j/k

2

If it were truly identical at the molecular level, then I think all it would need is the heart to start beating and it would be alive. If it were identical to a person with a mind, it would wake up with that mind.

Electricity is not life, life is a chemical process.

3

IIRC current theory is that lightning only created the chemical precursors to life.

I suspect that these precursors don’t have chance to develop into anything in an environment where life already exists. Probably, as soon as they are created, they are used/devoured my existing life.

4

The internet is a web of computers networked together. Hence, the term ‘web’. Each time a new computer is added to the network, the storage capacity grows. While the overall capacity is certainly finite at any given time, it certainly grows at a tremendous rate.

With today’s p2p technology, every computer (that means you, too) with internet access is, in a sense, contributing to this overall storage capacity.

It’s huge, trust me. But not infinite.

5

Each family would have aprox. 1,1 million sq.ft. Some of it wouldn’t be what I might call chaice real estate, but still…

Carry on.

6

Thank you for your answers so far, but can someone tell me what “iirc” stands for?

7

iirc =“If I Recall Correctly”

8

If you’ll indulge me, it seems to me like your questions on electricity and life may have been inspired by two things: Frankenstein, and the Urey-Miller experiment.

In science ficiton, it’s interesting to note how the potent agent changes from age to age. In Shelley’s time, mankind’s new, strange power was electricity, and this is how the monster was brought to life. In pre-WWII science fiction, electricity was often the mechanism by which strange things happened: people gained strange new powers after getting an electrical shock, the dead were reanimated, and curious electrical devices were created. After WWII, the Big Thing in science fiction was the Power of the Atom and radiation. Everything involved atom bombs or gamma rays. For a brief time, there was a surge in computers–robots, artificial intelligences, virtual reality, cyborgs, etc. The current fashion is DNA and mutations.

Of course, through all this, Frankenstein’s monster has maintained his popularity, a testiment to the ability of electricity to spark (insert creepy, wheezy mad scientist laugh here) humainity’s imagination.

Now, the Urey-Miller experiment was this: electrical discharges (simulating lightning) were passed through a jar containing gasses thought to be common in the early atmosphere of the Earth. The result was the creation of organic molecules, the building blocks of life. Life itself wasn’t created, just the chemicals necessary for life. This bit of research has sparked (weezy mad scientist laugh, again) many misconceptions and half-remembered stories of scientists making life in a test tube with lightning, but the organic stuff just layed there–a sticky, reddish brown goo. How organic chemicals came to form the first cells is the ten-thousand dollar question. It probably didn’t have much to do with lightning, because lightning striking the organic molecules would probably have a better chance of ruining them then causing them to suddenly assemble themselves into an aeomba.

Okay, that’s my lot. Welcome to the Straight Dope, smam. A bit of advice: you’ll probably get better answers to your questions if you start a new thread for each question. Most dopers don’t read every thread, just the ones that have something in the title that catches their attention. There’s no rule against posting several threads (within reason) as long as they’re all on different topics.

9

Quoting Podkayne -

Yeah, the Frankenstein thing is probably at the root of my questions.
The Urey-Miller thing I have never heard of, its good to know though that the things I think of when walking my dog have also been thought of by cleverer people.
Your posts have been electrifying (insert creepy, wheezy game-show host laugh here) .

10

FWIW chemical processes are electric though I’ll admit chemical bonds and lighting strikes are on a different scale. Those precursors created by lighting are amino acids. Certainly a building block but a few steps below what could be called life. A fair bit of evolution from there to amoebas.

You are asking a philosophy/theology question more than a science question. More GD material. FWIW I don’t believe that a human is only the sum of all the molecules and chemical processes. That’s all well and good but I can offer you not one bit of evidence in support of that aprt from my own spiritual beliefs. Creating a “synthetic human” is vastly beyond our understanding let alone abilities but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I don’t know what you’d have if you created a synthetic corpse and jump started its heart. Perhaps the physical body is only incidental and God would endow it with a soul. Or maybe it would be a dead eyed, soulless automiton in flesh and blood. Perhaps it would seem almost normal but would not have the ability to dig John Lee Hooker singing Boogie Chillun.

11

Well, if you’re lucky. When the thunder and lightning scare her, offer to hold her and comfort her. The remainder of the process is left as an exercise to the student. :wink:

12

No I will not steal her purse, what an extraordinary thing to say Mr. Fagan.