Or as the Ancient Aliens folks will tell you that aliens came to earth and decided to play god.

Here we are, learning about this just before human life goes extinct. Isn't that always the way, a day late and a dollar short.

Here we are, learning about this just before human life goes extinct. Isn't that always the way, a day late and a dollar short.

While it is certainly foreseeable that the earth's human population will go through bottlenecks of dramatic reduction at various times in the future, it is difficult to imagine any event that would lead to actual extinction.

"...it is difficult to imagine any event that would lead to actual extinction."

Please try harder. Toba's 70k BPE super-eruption came close, such now would be worse. A new 'Large Igneous Province' such as the 'Siberian Traps' that seems to have caused the Permian mega-extinction would be horrendous.

Meteor Crater was made by an estimated 50 metre diameter impactor. A sub-kilometre rock hitting eg Arabia with scant warning may prompt the 'Usual Suspects' to launch nukes, either in mistaken retaliation or 'beggar my neighbour' mode. Then, as refugees flee hither & yon, expect dire diseases to run amok as the disaster cascades through global society...
Brrr...

"[..] it is difficult to imagine any event that would lead to actual extinction." - Not so.. if the earth happens to collide with the likes of the most recent comet to hit Jupiter. Game over. .

"[..] it is difficult to imagine any event that would lead to actual extinction." - Not so.. if the earth happens to collide with the likes of the most recent comet to hit Jupiter. Game over. .

At 1.4 km diameter, Shoemaker-Levy 9 was nowhere near large enough to cause an extinction event. The Chixiulub bolide was ~10 km in diameter depending on composition.

http://adsabs.har...22..155C

Life on this planet is robust, and could not be extinguished while the sun still lives. Humans? They could be gone very easily. Humans might well manage to drown in their own waste products, like yeast.

Nik_2213 "Please try harder."
Could we try and be more polite here so it won't go as low as Youtube comments?

Except that RNA and the more complex DNA are simply inanimate molecules. They are the instructions for cellular replication, akin to the combinations of binary bits encoded on a magnetic or optical disk that are instructions for digital microprocessors. Without a microprocessor to read and perform the instructions, the bits by themselves accomplish nothing.

RNA can modify itself or catalyze many other chemical reactions. "The condensation of amino acids in the peptidyl transferase center of the ribosome (arguably THE most important reaction in the cell!) is catalyzed not by protein, but by the major RNA component of the large subunit. " https://www.ncbi....4371269/
Please apologize for lying to everyone, aksdad.