Episode 620: Is There A Shadow Biosphere? Life On Earth That Isn't Related To Us
Whenever I talk about the search for life in the Universe and its emphasis on water, I get comments that scientists aren’t being creative enough. Why does life rely on water? Couldn’t there be lifeforms which are completely different from life on Earth? Isn’t that the textbook definition of alien?
Astrobiologists have only scratched the surface in their search for life in the Universe, and they’re going after the low-hanging fruit. Since life on Earth can be found wherever there’s water, why not check out the water on other worlds? If that doesn’t pan out, then they’ll expand the search.
But it’s possible there are aliens living right here on Earth among us, in a shadow biosphere, we just haven’t detected them yet.
Thumbnail credit:
http://blogs.esa.int/caves/2019/09/11/a-new-journey-into-earth-for-space-exploration/
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References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2478661/
https://www.jcvi.org/gos
https://aeon.co/ideas/there-are-more-microbial-species-on-earth-than-stars-in-the-sky
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24206781_Signatures_of_a_Shadow_Biosphere
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/nonprotein-amino-acids
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/looking-for-life-on-mars-viking-experiment-team-member-reflects-on-divisive-findings/
https://www.livescience.com/64829-hachimoji-dna.html
https://phys.org/news/2012-07-dispel-shadow-biosphere-earth.html