Friday, July 06, 2007

Be on the lookout for weird life

The search for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond should include efforts to detect what scientists sometimes refer to as "weird" life -- that is, life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth -- says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report found that the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it -- a liquid water biosolvent, carbon-based metabolism, molecular system capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the environment -- are not the only ways to support phenomena recognized as life.

2 comments:

Chris said...

It's interesting how ideas seem to move in waves through science and tech circles. New Scientist from a couple of weeks ago had a feature on how life needn't be based on carbon or water. I've seen a few articles in the past few weeks on the same theme. Ideas are in the air. I have to admit I was a carbon/water chauvenist until recently. Now it's looking like we're going to have a hard time finding lifelessness.

Anonymous said...

Hmm... that's amazing! It will in no time that the Earth's resources will be depleted, and we need to find another planet or perhaps, a galaxy to live in. Much like Star Wars.