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Acetylene Based Life on Titan?

Posted by Zonk on from the no-hugging dept.

mindpixel writes "Astrobiology Magazine's Leslie Mullen has a fascinating interview with funky science dude David Grinspoon about the possibility that there may exist a whole new biology on Titan where the extreme cold slows normally explosive reactions to a biologically useful pace." From the article: "What's really new in our paper is that we go into the question of energy sources. If there's life there, what's it going to eat? What kind of food is there? And it turns out there's abundant food because of all this photochemistry in the upper atmosphere, where methane is being turned into other organic molecules. Some of those organic molecules are very energy-rich, and one that we consider in the paper is acetylene. We know it's being made in the atmosphere, we know it's raining down on the surface, and it's been detected at the surface with the Huygens probe. We calculated that, if acetylene is reacting with the hydrogen gas to turn it back into methane, quite a bit of energy is being released. So that's our basis for saying there is something to eat on Titan. We don't know if there are any customers, but there's something on the menu."

12 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Farts for dinner? by jkc120 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any intelligent life form that eats farts should be feared. That is all.

    --
    "I drank what?" -Socrates
    1. Re:Farts for dinner? by Froggy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Any intelligent life form that eats farts should be feared. That is all.

      Any Slashdot poster that farts acetylene is to be feared. From as far away as possible.

      --
      It is a woman's prerogative to change other people's minds.
    2. Re:Farts for dinner? by TelJanin · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought honey was bee barf (not in here mister, this is a Mercedes).

  2. Life of Titan by Tesral · · Score: 5, Funny
    Well, it is possible. Life Jim, but not as we know it. What it does bring up is the star system with nothing but giant planets might have moons with life. Hey, it could happen.

    Now if we could only be successful in finding intelligent life in Washington DC

    --
    Garry AKA -Phoenix- Rising Above the Flames
    Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
  3. life on titan by foobari · · Score: 5, Funny

    Excited missionaries are pulling out their cold weather gear.

    1. Re:life on titan by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sorry, juvenile comment alert:
      Gotta love any sentence with both the word "missionary" and "pulling out"

      --
      Monstar L
    2. Re:life on titan by TheGavster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Missionaries on Titan can only end in tears:

      "On the first day, God created the Earth ..."

      "I live on Titan, how does this apply to me?"
      or:
      "In Soviet Titan, Earth creates God!"

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
  4. Dave Barry came up with a good answer... by SIGBUS · · Score: 3, Funny

    Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.

    --
    Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
    1. Re:Dave Barry came up with a good answer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.

      So 500 pound gorillas aren't alive? They might not die, but they sure got angry with me when I tried that the other day.

  5. Re:What is life, anyway? by Acius · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think you forgot: 4. Has a sense of humor. Cause life without a sense of humor isn't any kind of life at all. (Sad observation: This post isn't very funny. So shoot me).

    --
    Acius the unfamous
  6. Genocide by Jozer99 · · Score: 3, Funny

    We should probably make sure they don't find out about the Acetylene genocide going on at every mechanic's garage and construction site every day.

  7. Titan is OURS by patricksevenlee · · Score: 3, Funny
    All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there.

    I'm assuming the warning covers the rest of the solar system. So those little black rectangles can kiss our carbon based rear ends.

    Also, members of the Titan version of Slashdot are probably saying, "I for one welcome our monkey-based overlords."