Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

MF cuts Irish growth forecasts due to post-Brexit risks

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND WARNS IRISH BANKS COULD BE HIT BY UK’S WITHDRAWAL

   

IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE: WASHINGTON-BASED FUND FORECASTS IRISH GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT EXPANDING 3.2% NEXT YEAR.

The International Monetary Fund cut its Irish economic forecasts following the UK’s decision to quit the European Union and warned banks would be hit as Brexit weighs on their UK operations and prospects for companies, employment and investment.

The Washington-based fund now sees Irish gross domestic product expanding 3.2% next year, having previously estimated 3.6% growth, according to its main annual review of the country, published on Thursday. It trimmed its forecast for this year marginally, to 4.9% from 5%.

“The rebound of the Irish economy has been exceptional,” the IMF said. “The positive economic performance is expected to continue, but the UK vote to leave the EU amplifies downside risks.”

The IMF has chosen to ignore the Central Statistics Office’s recent upward revision of Irish GDP for last year to 26 per cent in its analysis and policy recommendations, as the data “would distort the true representation of the underlying economic developments”.

Staff at the fund recommended that Irish officials develop additional gauges that better reflect the country’s underlying activity.

MANAGEABLE IMPACT

In a separate report on the country’s financial system, the IMF said the impact of Brexit “could be large, but should still be manageable”, adding the longer-term consequences will depend on the nature of the future relationship between the UK and the EU, especially regarding trade, financial flows and labour movement.

The report gave strong backing to the Central Bank’s introduction of mortgage lending limits last year, which the Irish regulator has insisted will remain a permanent feature of Irish banking even as it reviews the rules this year.

The caps are “well-justified, even though credit conditions have normalised and real estate prices are estimated to be close to equilibrium”, the IMF said.

HOUSE PRICES

The latest CSO data shows Irish house prices rose almost 7% in the year to May. However, values are still one-third off their 2007 peak. The country’s unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8% from a peak above 15.1% at the height of the financial crisis, in early 2012.

The IMF noted the Government has placed a “high priority” on boosting housing supply, having recently unveiled a plan aimed at delivering 25,000 new houses per year by the end of the decade.

The IMF said that households and companies have lowered their borrowings in recent years – they remain highly leveraged, with 100,000 home loans estimated to be in negative equity at the end of last year. While banks have lowered their non-performing assets as they restructure soured loans and the economy improves, the overall level of troubled loans remains a challenge, it said.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan welcomed the publication of the reports on Ireland’s economy and financial services landscape.

“The IMF also recognises that the Government is fully committed to sound budgetary policy in the years ahead and that Ireland’s financial regulatory and supervisory frameworks have been significantly upgraded and the financial soundness of the banking sector has improved,” he said.

However, the fund noted that “increased fragmentation” in the new Dáil, “reform fatigue” and Brexit may complicate the Government’s job.

The IMF also urged the Government to proceed with further bank share sales, even though Mr Noonan has effectively ruled out an initial public offering of Allied Irish Banks, which received a €20.8 billion bailout during the crisis, until the first half of next year at least.

Ireland’s office workers must exercise for at least an hour a day to counter death risk

   

AROUND ONE IN FOUR ADULTS GLOBALLY AND 80% OF SCHOOL-GOING TEENAGERS ARE FAILING TO MEET THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION RECOMMENDATION OF 150 MINUTES OF MODERATE-INTENSITY EXERCISE PER WEEK. 

Irish workers, who have sedentary jobs, may eliminate some of the harmful effects of sitting if they do one hour of physical activity daily, new research reveals.

The findings, in the ‘Lancet’, which are part of a series measuring global levels of physical activity since the last Olympics, also warn that lack of exercise is linked to one in 20 cases of dementia in Ireland.

Physical inactivity is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, leading to around five million deaths across the world annually.

Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity.

As more employees have no choice but to spend eight or more hours a day sitting down, the risks are on the rise.

However, the study from the University of Cambridge in the UK and the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, which looked at over one million people, said one hour of exercise such as a brisk walk or cycling for pleasure may eliminate the increased risk of death associated with prolonged sitting.

Most of us will spend hours on the couch watching the world’s fittest athletes during TV coverage of the Olympics, which begin in Brazil next week.

But since the last Games four years ago there has been little progress in increasing levels of physical activity.

Around one in four adults globally and 80pc of school-going teenagers are failing to meet the World Health Organisation recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Physical activity is a valuable part of any overall body wellness plan and is associated with a lower risk of brain decline.

In order to reduce the risk of dementia, we should engage in cardiovascular exercise to elevate the heart rate.

This increases the blood flow to the brain and body.

It reduces potential dementia risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

The researchers also looked at time spent watching television all day and found sitting for over three hours looking at the goggle-box was associated with increased risk of death, except in the most active.

The authors said: “For many people who commute to work and have office-based jobs there is no way to escape sitting for prolonged periods of time.

“For these people in particular, we cannot stress enough the importance of getting exercise, whether it is getting out for a walk at lunchtime, going for a run in the morning or cycling to work.

IDEAL ACTIVITY AN HOUR A DAY?

“An hour of physical activity per day is the ideal, but if this is unmanageable, then at least doing some exercise each day can help reduce the risk.”

Overall, the ‘Lancet’ reported that while in the past four years more countries have been monitoring progress in physical activity, the evidence of improvements is scarce.

Earlier this year, Ireland launched its first National Physical Activity Plan, with the aim of increasing the number of people taking regular exercise by 50,000 a year over the next decade. Seven out of 10 adults are too inactive and fail to get the necessary 30 minutes a day of moderate activity five days a week, which is recommended for 18- to 64-year-olds.

The plan involves supporting more community walking groups, getting doctors to prescribe exercise for patients and encouraging employers to bring in standing desks to avoid staff having to sit all day.

The plan, which comes with €5.5m funding, also involves introducing a new school subject, Well-being, from September as part of the new Junior Cycle.

Dolly’s cloned sheep ‘twins’ alive and kicking well

   

FOUR GENETICALLY-IDENTICAL COPIES OF DOLLY THE FAMOUS CLONED SHEEP, WHICH SUFFERED ILL HEALTH AND DIED PREMATURELY IN 2003, ARE GOING STRONG AT THE ADVANCED AGE OF NINE, A STUDY SAID TUESDAY. 

Debbie, Denise, Dianna and Daisy — identical sisters of Dolly, though born 11 years later — were “in pretty good health”, according to researchers who studied whether cloned animals can live long, healthy lives.

The quadruplets were made from the same mammary gland cell line that yielded Dolly — the first mammal cloned using a technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Born 20 years ago on July 5, 1996, Dolly developed crippling knee arthritis aged five and died of lung disease at the age of six — about half the life expectancy of her breed of Finn-Dorset sheep.
Dolly’s ill health and early demise raised red flags that clones may be sickly and age prematurely compared to naturally-conceived peers.

Cloned lab mice, too, have shown a propensity for obesity, diabetes, and dying young.

Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham and a team conducted thorough medical exams on the four “Dollies” born in July 2007, as well as nine other sheep clones from different cell cultures.

All 13 animals, aged seven to nine, were the product of lab studies seeking to improve the efficiency of SCNT.

Experts measured the sheep’s glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure and muscle and bone strength, in what they said was the first comprehensive assessment of age-related disease in animal clones.

A few of the sheep had mild osteoarthritis, the team found, and one a “moderate” form of the ailment — though this was not unusual for their age. None of the sheep were lame, as Dolly was.
– Ageing ‘normally’ –

Despite their “advanced age”, none of the sheep were diabetic, and they had normal blood pressure.

The data, said the team, was “compelling, indicating no detrimental long-term adverse effects of SCNT on the health of aged adult offspring.”

SCNT involves removing the DNA-containing nucleus from a cell other than an egg or sperm — a skin cell, for example — and implanting it into an unfertilised egg from which the nucleus had been removed.

Once transferred, the egg reprogrammes the mature DNA back to an embryonic state with the aid of an electric jolt, and it starts dividing to form an embryo.

No human is known to ever have been created in this way.

In spite of recent improvements, the technique remains inefficient, and expensive, with a small percentage of cloned embryos surviving to birth.

“For those clones that survive… however, the emerging consensus, supported by the current data, is that they are healthy and seem to age normally,” said the study in the journal Nature Communications.

Animal cloning is used in agriculture, mainly to create breeding stock, as well as in the business of “bringing back” people’s dead pets.

Despite initial high expectations, it has not found a place in the field of medical therapy for humans.

Women with later start to periods, menopause more likely to reach age 90

   

WOMEN WITH LATER MENARCHE AND LATER MENOPAUSE ARE MORE LIKELY TO REACH AGE 90 THAN THOSE WHOSE REPRODUCTIVE MILESTONES COME AT EARLIER AGES, SUGGESTS A NEW STUDY.

“People have always wondered whether the timing of reproductive events affect longevity, but no study to date has evaluated that relationship,” said lead author Aladdin Shadyab, of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

The research team used data collected from 16,251 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, starting between 1993 and 1998 and continuing until August 2014.

All the women were born before September 1924; 8,892, or 55%, survived to age 90.

Women who were at least 12 years old at menarche were about 9% more likely to reach age 90 than those who were younger.

And women who were at least 50 when their periods stopped were about 20% more likely to reach age 90 than women who entered menopause before age 40. This was true whether menopause was natural or surgical.

A longer reproductive lifespan was also tied to longevity. Women who menstruated for more than 40 years were 13% more likely to reach age 90 than those who had less than 33 reproductive years, the authors reported in a paper released July 27 by the journal Menopause.

Shadyab and colleagues can’t say why later periods and later menopause are tied to longer life, but the link could be related to lifestyle factors and genetics.

“It is possible that those who begin menstruating later and those who experience menopause at older ages are in better health long term,” Shadyab told Reuters Health.

There could also be genes that affect both the start of periods and menopause and a woman’s length of life, he added.

“Further studies are needed to determine why reproductive factors predict living to age 90 in women,” he said.

Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who is executive director of The North American Menopause Society, agrees that lifestyle factors and genetics are likely behind the link between later reproductive milestones and longevity.

Pinkerton, who was not involved in the study, said research suggests that hormones that may protect women’s hearts are lost during menopause.

Also, she said some behaviors, such as smoking, have an impact on overall health and on the timing of menopause.

Look at the size of this jellyfish that was washed up on Portmarnock beach Dublin

   

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE WATER? and Thanks to the warm weather we’ve been experiencing so far this summer, thousands of people who wouldn’t go near the water in the depths of winter have been dipping their toes in the sea off the Irish coast.

The need to stay safe in the water is paramount and those heading to the beach should be aware of the dangers before going in for a swim.

The Lion’s Mane jellyfish (giant jellyfish) is the largest known species of jellyfish and is commonly found in cold waters like the Irish Sea; certainly anyone walking along Portmarnock beach yesterday evening could hardly have missed the one that had washed up on the shore.

Karen Purdy spotted the jellyfish at approximately 9.30pm last night and told us it was still moving when she came across it.

If you ever happen to be stung by a jellyfish or are providing first aid for someone who has, check out the advice issued by Irish Water Safety here.

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE UK.

Beach users urged to report jellyfish

     

THE LION’S MANE JELLYFISH IS OFTEN FOUND OFF THE NORTHUMBERLAND COAST.

Beach users are being urged to report jellyfish finds on beaches, including the Lion’s Mane which has the most painful sting in the UK and is rarely seen south of Northumberland.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), the UK’s leading marine charity, says the number of jellyfish blooms – when jellies mass together – in UK coastal waters is on the increase as our seas start to warm up.

Every summer hundreds of reports of jellyfish sightings are made to the MCS National Jellyfish Survey – now in its 14th year. The survey is providing valuable information about where and when jellyfish occur in UK seas amid global reports of a rise in jellyfish numbers.

Jellies to look out for in UK waters include the Lion’s Mane (Cyanea capillata), which has the most powerful and painful sting of the UK species. It blooms during the summer but is rarely seen south of the Irish Sea, or south of Northumberland, with most reports coming from Scottish waters.

According to the MCS, Lion’s Mane have been spotted in Northumberland in July, as well as in Aberdeenshire, Hebrides, Orkney, Angus and Ceredigion.

Up until July, it’s been a relatively quiet year for jellyfish reports, unlike the last two years when record numbers of barrel jellyfish were reported around UK seas through the spring and summer.

But jellies are starting to pick up as the waters around the UK warm up, with mass strandings of both species in South West England and Wales.

Dr Peter Richardson, Head of Biodiversity and Fisheries at the MCS, said “There’s evidence that jellyfish numbers are increasing in some parts of the world, including UK seas.

“Some scientists argue that jellyfish numbers increase and then decrease normally every 20 years or so, however, others believe and these increases are linked to factors such as pollution, over-fishing and possibly climate change. The MCS jellyfish survey helps provide some of the information we need to understand more about these ancient creatures.

“We still know relatively little about jellyfish and what drives changes in their numbers, so reporting even a single one can help. One thing we do know is that Leatherback turtles travel to UK waters to feed on jellyfish and are usually recorded along the west coast of the UK between May and October – this year we’ve already heard of sightings from the south west of England and the Irish Sea.”

MCS says that anyone who comes across a jellyfish at sea or on the beach should look but don’t touch, but report their sightings via the MCS website.

Jellies to look out for in UK waters:

Moon (very mild sting) – most widespread species, occurring all around the UK coast from May.

Blue (mild sting) – less common than the moon but can turn up anywhere.

Barrel (very mild sting) – can grow up to 1 metre in diameter and weigh up to 40kgs, totally harmless despite its size and is largely limited to the Irish Sea and adjacent waters to the north. Can be spotted all year round, even in winter, but blooms tend to start in March.

Lion’s Mane (powerful sting) – has the most powerful and painful sting of the UK species. It blooms during the summer but is rarely seen south of the Irish Sea (west coast), or south of Northumberland (east coast), with most reports coming from Scottish waters.

Compass (mild sting) – has bizarre compass-like markings and is found throughout the UK coast.

Mauve Stingers (powerful sting) – occasionally recorded from the southwest in early spring, but large numbers were reported off Britain’s west coast during November 2007, 2008 & 2009.

Portuguese Man-of-War (dangerous sting) – rare in UK waters but MCS received many reports from beaches in south-west England in the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009.     

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG Tuesday

Ireland central bank sets lenders tougher debt targets

    

* One infive homeowners unable to repay loans

* Banks must reach agreements with more distressed borrowers

Ireland’s central bank and bailout lenders set the country’s lenders tougher targets on Tuesday to solve a mortgage arrears crisis that has left one in five of all Irish homeowners unable to repay their loans.

Ireland took an 85 billion euro ($114 billion) bailout in 2010 after rescuing its banks, whose easy lending had fuelled a credit bubble, and the central bank has been pressing lenders to get to grips with mortgage arrears.

It has agreed with Ireland’s “troika” of international lenders (pic above) - the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank – to require banks to conclude agreements with 15 percent of customers with mortgage arrears over 90 days by the end of this year.

That compares with a previous target of only offering solutions to 50 percent of distressed borrowers by the end of 2013.

“Furthermore, the central bank is now setting expectations for end-March 2014 for sustainable solutions offered to customers to reach 70 percent of over 90-day arrears and for concluded solutions to reach 25 percent,” the central bank said in a statement. ()

The central bank says mortgage arrears is the main domestic policy issue, with home loans worth 25 billion euros not being fully repaid.

Lawmakers said this month that the largest banks have relied too heavily on threatening legal action against mortgage borrowers rather than agreeing debt restructurings.

John Bruton warns against over-regulation with Irish banks

 

The President of the Irish Financial Services Centre and former Taoiseach John Bruton, says Ireland should seek to become a centre of excellence in compliance

Ireland should seek to become a centre of excellence in compliance and risk management for financial services companies, John Bruton, president of IFSC Ireland told a banking conference in Dublin today.

“Compliance is an increasingly costly activity for banks,” the former Taoiseach told the annual conference of the Federation of International Banks in Ireland.

“Those involved in it are well paid. Complex regulation is an inherently expensive business. But for Ireland it can be an opportunity.

“Just as Ireland has become a centre of excellence in the fields of aircraft leasing and fund administration in the past, we should seek to become a centre of excellence in compliance and risk management in the future.

The IDA and our universities are already putting funds behind R&D in finance and this is a basis to build on.”

Mr Bruton said other opportunities exist to increase activity in the IFSC here, including clearing and settlement, collateral and risk management, and green and Islamic finance.

“The recent decision, contained in the recent Central Bank Act, to allow non-EU banks to open branches here is a major opportunity. Some banks, now operating in the UK in high cost locations, may be able to relocate activities on a branch basis in Ireland,” he added.

Mr Bruton warned against over regulation in financial services although he said it might benefit Ireland.

He cited a recent study on banking by McKinsey that estimated that, if all the regulations currently in the pipeline were now in force, it would reduce the return on equity on European banks from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

“This is a non-trivial issue for the Irish taxpayer who has, albeit reluctantly, acquired a disproportionately large equity holding in banks, and needs a return on that equity to meet basic services.

“On the other hand, the increased compliance cost may force financial institutions to look for the most cost effective locations in which to undertake this high-cost activity and this may be an opportunity for Ireland.”

Eamonn Tuohy, chairman of FIBI, said that from a recentsurvey of its members, one-third of respondents expect to hire more staff this year. This follows an 8 per cent increase in employment in the sector in Dublin in 2012.

However, he said the collapse of our domestic banking sector since 2008 continues to weigh on Ireland’s reputation as a financial services location while there are also concerns about our “capacity to attract very high calibre people to locate here” due to “comparatively high rates of personal tax”.

Mr Tuohy said Ireland also needs to streamline its regulation of the financial sector.

This would include shortening the lead time to securing decisions from the regulator, streamlining the fitness and probity tests, getting greater clarity from the regulator about what kinds of activity are likely to be acceptable or unacceptable, and improved retention of staff at the Central Bank with the necessary experience and skills.

Crucial for Government to keep 9% VAT rate for restaurants in Irish Budget

  

ADRIAN CUMMINS SAID THAT TOURISM EMPLOYMENT HAD RISEN BY 9,000 SINCE THE 9% VAT RATE WAS REDUCED IN 2011

The Restaurants Association of Ireland has said retention of the lower 9% VAT rate for the tourism industry in the Budget is crucial for the survival of restaurants nationwide.

Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, the chief executive of the Restaurant Association said the restaurant industry employs 64,000 people.

This accounts for a quarter of tourism jobs, while the sector also contributes €2 billion to the Irish economy each year.

Adrian Cummins said that tourism employment had risen by 9,000 since the VAT rate was reduced in 2011, adding that retention of the lower rate would keep Ireland competitive as a tourist destination and sustain jobs in local communities.

He warned that tourism is one of the only industries creating employment in every corner of the country – and that if the 9% VAT rate is increased, jobs will be lost.

The Committee was told that Irish restaurant owners pay the highest catering wage rate in Europe, and that Ireland has the highest excuse duty on wines in Europe. He also noted that Irish food cost inputs are 18% above the European average.

Mr Cummins said that a fall in disposable income due to the recession was having a disproportionate effect on the sector.

He said there was now a three speed economy for restaurants – Dublin city centre restaurants are doing well, and are even seeing new openings; establishments in urban areas around the country are busy, but only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights while outside urban areas, restaurants and cafes are on life support. He stressed that the 9% VAT rate was their lifeline.

He also criticised the price of food, excise duty increases, rates, and regulatory burdens and called for ”helpful” PRSI measures to be retained.

Better diet and less stress can reverse our ageing body cells

 

Lifestyle changes were found to have had positive impact after five years

Yoga was one of the stress-reducing activities found to reverse ageing at the cellular level

  The fountain of youth may simply be a healthy diet and reduced stress like practicing Yoga after all, not a magic pill or expensive cosmetics.

Comprehensive lifestyle changes, including more fruit and vegetables as well as meditation and yoga, were shown to reverse signs of ageing at the cellular level for the first time in a study published today.

Adopting a diet rich in unprocessed foods combined with moderate exercise and stress management over five years increased the length of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes linked to ageing, according to a study of 35 men published in the Lancet medical journal. No previous study has shown the effect of lifestyle changes on telomere length, the authors said.

The research, led by Prof Dean Ornish, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, adds to evidence of the benefits of healthy habits.

“So often, people think it has to be a new drug or laser, something really high-tech and expensive, to be powerful,” said Prof Ornish. “Our studies are showing that simple changes in our lifestyle have powerful impacts in ways that we can measure.”

Prof Ornish collaborated on the study with Elizabeth Blackburn, who shared the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2009 with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for research on the telomerase “immortality enzyme,” which prevents telomeres from being shaved off.

He was inspired by Blackburn’s research showing that the shortening of telomeres, and therefore ageing, is accelerated by emotional stress such as that experienced by women who have parents with Alzheimer’s disease or children with autism.

The study included 35 men with low-risk prostate cancer enrolled between 2003 and 2007. Ten men adopted the lifestyle changes, while 25 underwent active surveillance as a control group.

The diet encouraged in the lifestyle change group was largely a whole foods, plant-based regimen of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, with few refined carbohydrates, Ornish said. It wasn’t strictly vegetarian or vegan.

“Most people want to feel free, and as soon as you tell someone, don’t ever eat this, always eat that, that’s hard to sustain,” Ornish said. “If you indulge yourself one day, just eat healthier the next.”

In addition to changes in diet, the program included 30 minutes of walking six days a week; 60 minutes of daily stress management, mostly in the form of yoga and meditation; and a 60- minute support group session once a week.

Telomere length increased among the men in the lifestyle intervention group and decreased in the control group. As telomeres become shorter, cells age and die more quickly. The study authors said they are “rather like the tips of shoelaces that keep them from fraying.”

The study is limited by the small size and by the fact that it wasn’t randomised, which increases the possibility of unknown sources of bias, the authors said. The results suggest larger randomised studies in different populations would be useful, they said.

High Blood Pressure recorded with children should not be ignored

        

Children who record even one high blood pressure reading are significantly more likely to go on to develop high blood pressure in adulthood, new research has found.

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a major cause of heart attack and stroke. However, it rarely carries any signs or symptoms. In fact, a person can look and feel well even if they have it.

The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have it checked by a health professional, such as a GP or pharmacist.

US scientists followed the progress of 1,117 teenagers over almost three decades. When the participants were younger, blood pressure readings were taken by either doctors or school nurses.

After taking into account factors that could influence the results, such as gender and weight, the scientists from Indiana University School of Medicine found a direct link between blood pressure readings in childhood and the condition in adulthood.

The study found that among children who did not display high blood pressure readings, just over 8% went on to develop high blood pressure as adults.

However, among those who had one high blood pressure reading as a child, this rate rose to 18%. Furthermore, among those who had two or more high readings during childhood, the rate rose to 35%.

According to the scientists, these findings suggest that even occasional jumps in blood pressure during childhood should not be ignored as they could signal problems later on.

“This study highlights the need for paediatricians to regularly check blood pressure and weight. An occasional increase in blood pressure does not justify treatment, but it does justify following these children more carefully,” they said.

Details of these findings were presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Life on Earth may have come from comet explosion’s  “scientists tell us”

  

COMETS CONTAIN ELEMENTS SUCH AS WATER, AMMONIA, METHANOL AND CARBON DIOXIDE THAT COULD HAVE SUPPLIED THE RAW MATERIALS, IN WHICH UPON IMPACT ON EARLY EARTH WOULD HAVE YIELDED AN ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF ENERGY TO PRODUCE AMINO ACIDS AND JUMP START LIFE.

The explosive collisions of icy comets with planets and moons generated the vital building blocks of life, spreading these necessary ingredients throughout the solar system, researchers say.

“The important implication is that the complex precursors to life are widespread, thus increasing the chances of life evolving elsewhere,” study co-author Mark Price, a space scientist at the University of Kent in England, told SPACE.com.

Comets are known to possess organic compounds. Scientists have long suggested that comets helped bring the ingredients of life to the early Earth. [7 Theories on the Origin of Life ]

Astronomers have detected ammonia and other compounds in comets such as Halley’s Comet that are the precursors of amino acids, the basic components of proteins. Indeed, the simplest amino acid, glycine, was recently discovered in samples of the Comet 81P/Wild-2 collected by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft.

However, more complex amino acids are needed for life . Computer models from physical chemist Nir Goldman at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California suggested impacts could form complex amino acids, and Price and hiscolleagues set out to replicate these simulations, while astrobiologist Zita Martins at Imperial College in London and her colleagues helped look for any resultant amino acids.

‘The complex precursors to life are widespread, thus increasing the chances of life evolving elsewhere.’

- Mark Price, a space scientist at the University of Kent in England

“Impacts are ubiquitous in the solar system — we see impact craters on every solid surface in the solar system,” Price said. “Due to gravity, we know these impacts must occur at very high velocities, kilometers per second. During such impacts, pressures and temperatures get very high, providing an environment that can induce chemical changes in target and projectile materials. One such change is that simple molecules can become more complicated ones.”

In experiments, the researchers fired steel projectiles at speeds of up to 16,000 mph at ice mixtures similar to ones found in comets. The targets could be difficult to work with — “a mix of carbon dioxide ice, ammonia and methanol gets extremely cold, minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit), and handling the ices and containers meant using several layers of clean gloves, face masks and coveralls,” Price said. “Even so, this still resulted in frostbitten fingers!”

The results included several amino acids, including L-alanine, an important component of proteins on Earth. Martins, Price, Goldman and their colleagues detailed their findings online Sept. 15 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Price cautioned, “We have not created life. Not even close. What we have done is demonstrate a process that takes molecules that were present at the time of the birth of the solar system and made them into molecules that are required for life. It’s like taking simple LEGO bricks and sticking two together. You are a long way from building a house, but it is a start.”

The researchers suggest that icy impacts — whether from icy comets against rocky planets or rocky or icy bodies against icy surfaces such as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn  — could have manufactured complex organic molecules.

“As impacts occur everywhere we look, this implies that complicated molecules are also widespread throughout the solar system,” Price said. “We have managed to generate a result that may increase the chance of life being present in an environment outside of the Earth, such as under the ice of Enceladus or Europa.”

Future research can analyze what other compounds might form during such impacts — for instance, whether complex molecules can be altered into even more complex molecules.