9/28/2023 0 Comments Space haven alien infectionSo no matter what form life elsewhere in the solar system or universe may take, we have to make sure we protect it from harmful contamination – whether it is terrestrial life or alien lifeforms. The Earth supports the only known life in the universe. So it is important to consider all life as precious, no matter its size, quantity, or location. Regardless of the belief held by many that life exists elsewhere in the universe, we have no evidence for that. There are plenty of experiments testing out these alternative biochemistries, such as the one from Caltech. To find it, we have to somehow think outside of the terrestrial biology box and figure out ways of recognizing lifeforms that are fundamentally different from the carbon-based form. So even though silicon is inflexible compared with carbon, it could perhaps find ways to assemble into living organisms, potentially including carbon.Īnd when it comes to other places in space, such as Saturn’s moon Titan or planets orbiting other stars, we certainly can’t rule out the possibility of silicon-based life. A few years ago, scientists at Caltech managed to breed a bacterial protein that created bonds with silicon – essentially bringing silicon to life. That said, there are arguments in favor of silicon-based life on Earth. So if there were viable silicon lifeforms here, they may have evolved elsewhere. In fact, the chemical composition of life on Earth has an approximate correlation with the chemical composition of the sun, with 98% of atoms in biology consisting of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Another argument against a silicon-based shadow biosphere is that too much silicon is locked up in rocks. Life on Earth is fundamentally different from the bulk composition of the Earth. Compare this to highly soluble carbon dioxide, for example, and we see that carbon is more flexible and provides many more molecular possibilities. What’s more, common silicon compounds, such as silicon dioxide (or silica), are generally solid at terrestrial temperatures and insoluble in water. It struggles to create strong bonds, so long-chain molecules are much less stable. While carbon can create strong double and triple bonds to form long chains useful for many functions, such as building cell walls, it is much harder for silicon. But silicon is heavier, with 14 protons (protons make up the atomic nucleus with neutrons) compared to the six in the carbon nucleus. Silicon is similar to carbon, it has four electrons available for creating bonds with other atoms. Assuming it exists, such a shadow biosphere would probably be microscopic.Īrtist’s impression of a silicon-based life form. This means we can’t study or even notice them because they are outside of our comprehension. Such life would exist in a “shadow biosphere.” By that, I don’t mean a ghost realm, but undiscovered creatures probably with a different biochemistry. It’s possible they’re here right now and we simply can’t see them.” Sharman says she believes aliens exist and “there’s no two ways about it.” Furthermore, she wonders: “Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not. But the intelligent life we are searching for doesn’t have to be humanoid. When we think about aliens, we often picture humanoid creatures. Not being able to define life other than “we’ll know it when we see it” means we are truly limiting ourselves to geocentric, possibly even anthropocentric, ideas of what life looks like. The lack of definition is a huge problem when it comes to searching for life in space. An alternative (but imperfect) approach is describing life as “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution,” which works for many cases we want to describe. As nobody can agree, there are more than 100 definitions of what life is.
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