Alien life related question.

apeZ

apeZ

apeZ

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Just something I've been a little more curious about since that long 'Edge of the Universe' thread.

Numerous times, people seem to dismiss the possibility of alien life in a place where there is no water or oxygen. Surely with the vastness of the universe, organisms could live differently, for example on a planet full of say, Helium gas or Hydrogen gas?

It intrigues me, as most people seem to think that oxygen and water is the be-all and end-all. What do you guys think?
 
If there is one thing that nature is adept at it is in that life can't be contained and nature inevitably finds a way.

I can't say for sure but perhaps human thinking on exo-biology is too two-dimensional ?
 
I agree with you Von.

Most species on Earth live and survive in the same way. We breathe in oxygen, take it in through the lungs and oxygenate blood to be pumped around the body. This is the same for most animals, in some form or other. Perhaps alien life doesn't have lungs or blood as we know it; it could be something entirely different.
 
Other ways of living like silicon based have been thought about. But the thing is we only have carbon based lifeforms. So we only now what the tale-tale signs of that are. Which is why when searching for life with telescopes etc, they use what we know and can understand.
 
I don't think people don't believe alien life exists, they just believe that it doesn't visit the earth on a regular basis and appear exclusively to weirdos.

Obligate anaerobes don't need oxygen iirc.
 
There's not other life forms in the universe, if there was, why aren't they posting on OCUK I'm sure they need to clock their CPUs too?
 
apeZ said:
It intrigues me, as most people seem to think that oxygen and water is the be-all and end-all. What do you guys think?
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It is what we know works so naturally people will expect or look for that first. Other life forms could certainly exist - whether we'd be able to detect them is something else entirely.
 
meh

adaptation.
as others have said, that's life as we know it. but of course other types could have survived. another theory is that there is a cloud of dust called the cloud of life that passes through the universe to provide life, and it has only passed to earth
 
Nobody dismisses the idea of other forms of life evolving, but on planets with water and oxygen, we know more or less what to look out for.
 
No other forms of biochemistry have be proven to work as such in labs, even silicon. Enless there are elements out there that aren't on the periodic table it's pretty unlikely that other forms of life exist enless they're carbon based/water solvent.
 
Nanoman said:
No other forms of biochemistry have be proven to work as such in labs, even silicon. Enless there are elements out there that aren't on the periodic table it's pretty unlikely that other forms of life exist enless they're carbon based/water solvent.
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Its a matter of, we dont know!,

scientists cant cure all disease yet so you cant expect them to create new life.
 
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