It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
It’s narrow vision isn’t it, even on Earth we talk about the existence of mirror life
Cymek said:
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
It’s narrow vision isn’t it, even on Earth we talk about the existence of mirror life
There have been numerous contemplations about life elsewhere not using the four base pairs all life on earth use; one of my uni chem textbooks (I’ve forgotten which; possibly Dickerson, Gray, Darrensbourgh, and Darrensbourgh, Chemical Principals) discussed the possibility of life based on silicon rather than carbon. More recently researchers have produced life with six base pairs instead of four (see https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/topics/8328/)
I haven’t read the article linked here (because that’s the forum way); I’ll look at it later.
btm said:
Cymek said:
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
It’s narrow vision isn’t it, even on Earth we talk about the existence of mirror life
There have been numerous contemplations about life elsewhere not using the four base pairs all life on earth use; one of my uni chem textbooks (I’ve forgotten which; possibly Dickerson, Gray, Darrensbourgh, and Darrensbourgh, Chemical Principals) discussed the possibility of life based on silicon rather than carbon. More recently researchers have produced life with six base pairs instead of four (see https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/topics/8328/)
I haven’t read the article linked here (because that’s the forum way); I’ll look at it later.
To be fair it would be hard to start to look for life as we don’t know it.
It would need to look different to its background to likely be considered
btm said:
Cymek said:
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
It’s narrow vision isn’t it, even on Earth we talk about the existence of mirror life
There have been numerous contemplations about life elsewhere not using the four base pairs all life on earth use; one of my uni chem textbooks (I’ve forgotten which; possibly Dickerson, Gray, Darrensbourgh, and Darrensbourgh, Chemical
PrincipalsPrinciples) discussed the possibility of life based on silicon rather than carbon. More recently researchers have produced life with six base pairs instead of four (see https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/topics/8328/)I haven’t read the article linked here (because that’s the forum way); I’ll look at it later.
<hides face in shame>
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
Just need to make an account.
I think the main reason is that it is usually more fruitful if you have at least some idea of what you are looking for. Plus we haven’t really looked as yet. when possible alternative bio-signatures are more defined then we may look for those.
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
I hadn’t heard of the acronym LAWDKI.
> NASA formulated a similar working definition years earlier, in the mid-1990s, and still uses it to design astrobiology studies. Life, according to this formulation, “is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.”
That’s a bit of a limited definition, but not too bad.
> “self-reproduction with variations.”
That definition is not quite limited enough, and at the same time a little too vague.
It is possible for LAWDKI to exist without reproduction, but still be subject to Darwinian evolution. Consider Gaia for instance as a living organism, Gaia doesn’t reproduce, there’s only one Gaia. But it’s still subject to Darwinian evolution as its individual orhanelles compete with one another. At another location, there may be a Gaia without individual plants/animals/fungi/bacteria etc.
So Gaia fits the definition of “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.” but not “self-reproduction with variations.”
And on the other hand, robots may satisfy “self-reproduction with variations” but not “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution”.
“astrobiologists often end up looking for aliens that resemble Earth life”
That’s only astrobiologists. Astronomers more often end up looking for aliens that don’t even remotely resemble Earth life. We see this most obviously in SETI, but also in very many other branches of astronomy. Such as in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale. As well as space probes in the solar system.
Not much new stuff in that article.
Is there a definitive science book on alien life?
mollwollfumble said:
Is there a definitive science book on alien life?
I wouldn’t think so.
Ta buffy, looks an interesting long read.
I showed my granddughters life like they had never seen it today. I took them to where I’d seen the bearded dragons laying eggs and lo, there were baby beardies everywhere. The kids had a ball catching and cradling a couple in their hands. After a bit we let them go again.
roughbarked said:
I showed my granddughters life like they had never seen it today. I took them to where I’d seen the bearded dragons laying eggs and lo, there were baby beardies everywhere. The kids had a ball catching and cradling a couple in their hands. After a bit we let them go again.
How cute are the babies ?
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
I showed my granddughters life like they had never seen it today. I took them to where I’d seen the bearded dragons laying eggs and lo, there were baby beardies everywhere. The kids had a ball catching and cradling a couple in their hands. After a bit we let them go again.
How cute are the babies ?
Really cute.
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
I showed my granddughters life like they had never seen it today. I took them to where I’d seen the bearded dragons laying eggs and lo, there were baby beardies everywhere. The kids had a ball catching and cradling a couple in their hands. After a bit we let them go again.
How cute are the babies ?
Really cute.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:How cute are the babies ?
Really cute.
A lot of protein there.
Peak Warming Man said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:Really cute.
A lot of protein there.
More when they get bigger.
Peak Warming Man said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:Really cute.
A lot of protein there.
Don’t Be Ridiculous!
They’re much to big for the baby lizards to eat! :-p
buffy said:
It’s bothered me for many years that it is always assumed that life on other planets has to be just like here. This article has a think about other possibilities. I don’t think it is paywalled.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-as-we-dont-know-it/
That’s the best Science Fiction when they are unknowable and unknown by us.