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Water Not a Good Enough Guide To Find Alien Life
An anonymous reader noted an article in Cosmos that questions the conventional wisdom of the "follow the water" strategy of seeking extraterrestrial life, saying "There's an awful lot of places where water could exist — either on the surface of the Earth, or deep within it — yet life is largely concentrated in a small sliver of this."
If life is just an evolved entity composed of randomly assembled machines, as some biologists claim, then it begs the question of wether or not there might be 'life' out there that is not water based, but based on say, sand -- or silicon.
It simple states that water can exists in environments that is hostile to life as we know it.
No shit, Sherlock.
Yeah, seriously. The "conventional wisdom" is not that water implies life, but rather that the absence of water implies the absence of life.
We search for water on other worlds not because we're sure that's where there will be life, but rather because it's the first, most basic indicator of the possibility of the only kind of life we know can exist.
Water alone is not sufficient? Duh! Nobody ever thought it was.
I do take issue with the idea that only 12% of the water on earth has life. AFAIK, a cup of water from any natural source in or in the ground has some sort of life in it.
Yeah, like the very first look we took 600 feet under the Anarctic ice sheet showed complex life. Sounds fishy. Or shrimpy as the case may be.
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Well I am not saying it is impossible. But water has a lot of really unique chemical properties that makes randomly evolving life more likely. Being that it devolves a lot of chemicals, as well as it is sticky could come in handy in making life processes, Oh lets get rid of those pieces and glue these together while their bonds are week they stick together for a while then split. While silicon my have a lot of life giving properties for it to occur naturally/randomly you would need some medium to try to create random combination. Otherwise Sand/Silicon will be quite happy in sand like state.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It's unlikely enough to assemble genetic material (DNA/RNA on Earth) in a protective sheath (lipid bilayer here) in a liquid, how much more unlikely in a gas? It also means that unlike a small pool which could collect the necessary elements to create compounds in necessary quantities, these components disperse quickly in a gas. That same effect that would make life react quickly (chemically) once present would also reduce their likelyhood of appearing at all.
It's also possible extra-terrestrial intelligence could be in the form of beings made from pure energy and living in the center of stars, but it doesn't seem like the place we should start to look for them...
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
In looking our global ecosystem it seems to me that it is extremely fragile. There are myriad of unique characteristics of our planet that come together to support life.
Earth is just the right size to allow for a decent atmosphere.
It is just the right distance from the sun which allows for water in liquid form.
The iron core creates a magnetic field that protects us from solar radiation.
Also consider that we have just recently been able to find exoplanets, and most of what we have found are large jupiter-like planets. It is no wonder that we have not found another life-supporting planet. (yet)
One thing I would like to note is that all the great concentrations of life on this planet occur in places that are chaotic. Places where there is a fabulous mix of nutrients.
Look at the undersea steam vents, coral reefs, rain forests, and marshes. All of these are places where there is a lot of 'mixing' going on. Natures' blender, if you wish. And on a global scale, the earth itself is a great mixer. Water washes down the mountains and evaporates into the air. The moon drives tides. Currents of water and air circulate around the planet. Volcanoes and plate rifts leak minerals into the oceans and air. Fresh and saltwater mix.
Now consider the deserts of our planet. Lots of sun, but no water. And the underwater 'dead zones' devoid of sunlight, oxygen, or nutrients. These are all places where there is very little moving and mixing.
Yet some places we would never think that life could exist, it does. And it does so because of the mixing. Water is a great facilitator to that mixing, but perhaps not a requirement.
Life flourishes in chaotic environments. It is stagnation that is the bane of life. If we want to find life in the variety that matches earth, we need to find planets that are varied and wild like ours.
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