 Aribeth says: Ammonia, for example, has many of the same properties as water. An ammonia or ammonia-water mixture, stays liquid at much colder temperatures than plain water.Hydrogen fluoride methanol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and formamide have all been suggested as suitable solvents that could theoretically support alternative biochemistry. All of these “water replacements” have pros and cons when considered in our terrestrial environment. What needs to be considered is that with a radically different environment, comes radically different reactions. Water and carbon might be the very last things capable of supporting life in some extreme planetary conditions. In any case, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that our first encounter with extra-terrestrial life will not be a solely carbon-based occasion. The article does not seem to consider a definition of life important, which is pretty weird from a science article. A comment on the article at site raises the issue thus: <<<May I suggest that our provincialism does not merely consist of a bias toward carbon-based life-forms, but toward molecular life-forms? It is ironic that in the very age in which we are attempting to reproduce consciousness in nonorganic materials, we are limiting our search for life to the organic. Perhaps the definition of life needs tweaking. Is the sun alive? It feeds, grows, uses energy, remains stable but complex over extremely long intervals. It is extremely complex in its workings, arguably as complex as we ar... Ah yes, sulfur and arsenic...sounds like my ex... The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust We can only imagine what we experienced, meaning that we create new ideas based on aspects around us. Thus we are incapable of thinking in a new undiscovered direction. So new lifeforms living off an alternative source is unfathomable as we have not experienced it. Try thinking of what an alien lifeform would look like: can you think of something that has never been seen before? |
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