Does anyone else here experience the temptation to slap their palm against their forehead and sputter "DUH!" at their monitor?WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Extraterrestrial life may well be so weird we would not immediately recognize it, and scientists looking for alien life should be seeking the unfamiliar as well as the familiar, experts advised on Friday.
They said NASA'S current approach to "follow the water" works well if the assumption is that life everywhere is just like life is on Earth -- based on water, carbon and DNA.
But the "life as we know it" approach could easily miss something exotic, the National Academy of Sciences panel advised.
Article Cont'd
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No shit, I have been saying since I was 7 that maybe not all life depends on what we depend on.
That's the thing I've always thought about science. Scientists are intelligent, but they lack imagination. If it doesn't make sense scientifically, they will ignore it. What they forget is that there is so much we don't understand, we could easily come across things that seem totally impossible to us.
so we just throw darts into an invisible dart board and hope we hit something?robthemadman wrote:
That's the thing I've always thought about science. Scientists are intelligent, but they lack imagination. If it doesn't make sense scientifically, they will ignore it. What they forget is that there is so much we don't understand, we could easily come across things that seem totally impossible to us.
Hey, well, a lot of people (i.e. creationists) still have this insane concept, so I suppose it's not such a bad idea to point this out after all.unnamednewbie13 wrote:
Does anyone else here experience the temptation to slap their palm against their forehead and sputter "DUH!" at their monitor?WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Extraterrestrial life may well be so weird we would not immediately recognize it, and scientists looking for alien life should be seeking the unfamiliar as well as the familiar, experts advised on Friday.
They said NASA'S current approach to "follow the water" works well if the assumption is that life everywhere is just like life is on Earth -- based on water, carbon and DNA.
But the "life as we know it" approach could easily miss something exotic, the National Academy of Sciences panel advised.
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The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman
What are you talking about? Aliens have larger than normal heads, black beady eyes, no ears, and a skinny four foot tall body. They come in only two colors - green or grey.
I think we should begin funding theories and organizations who will be dedicated to developing ways to terra-form planets. First one being Mars. If we could create some kind of space ship that could gather space rock that contains minerals and gases like carbon dioxide, we could use a device that can grind that rock and spit it out onto the Martian terrain.
Ok, so this idea might be completely off the wall but I think it would be awesome. Maybe a colony on Mars would be a better idea for starters
Ok, so this idea might be completely off the wall but I think it would be awesome. Maybe a colony on Mars would be a better idea for starters
Nature is a powerful force. Those who seek to subdue nature, never do so permanently.
Clearly the folks at NASA have not seen Transformers.
Xbone Stormsurgezz
I mean GAWSH!Kmarion wrote:
Clearly the folks at NASA have not seen Transformers.
I thought the same thing when I read this....seems like a lot of people with a ton of knowledge are just plain naive. I almost thought it was a joke that they would even question the fact that life out there somewhere probably or may not look like we do here. DUH!?
I would imagine working with a budget means you have to go with what you know/most likely scenario.
Xbone Stormsurgezz
What he said ^^^^
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Not DUH, but HUH?
What are you guys on - about? There is a very real possibility that life will be RNA/DNA based everywhere in the Universe. Suggesting otherwise means simply this: demonstrate another mechanism for life; one that works and well, is alive.
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Not DUH, but HUH?
What are you guys on - about? There is a very real possibility that life will be RNA/DNA based everywhere in the Universe. Suggesting otherwise means simply this: demonstrate another mechanism for life; one that works and well, is alive.
Last edited by topal63 (2007-07-09 10:48:28)
Not only that, but I think it would be much easier for us to find 'life' that is like us - if we find water on a planet, we can search for life 'as we know it', As opposed to finding a planet full of gas (which may very well contain life 'as we don't know it') with no water/carbon.topal63 wrote:
What he said ^^^^
+
Not DUH, but HUH?
What are you guys on - about? There is a very real possibility that life will be RNA/DNA based everywhere in the Universe. Suggesting otherwise means simply this: demonstrate another mechanism for life; one that works and well, is alive.
True - but that's only because all life on planet, if you will, came from a single Common Ancestor. That means all life on Earth is inherently the same and therefore we do not know any "other possibilities" of life - yet.KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
Not only that, but I think it would be much easier for us to find 'life' that is like us - if we find water on a planet, we can search for life 'as we know it', As opposed to finding a planet full of gas (which may very well contain life 'as we don't know it') with no water/carbon.topal63 wrote:
What he said ^^^^
+
Not DUH, but HUH?
What are you guys on - about? There is a very real possibility that life will be RNA/DNA based everywhere in the Universe. Suggesting otherwise means simply this: demonstrate another mechanism for life; one that works and well, is alive.
You get what I mean?
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman
if it wasnt water-based, but instead maybe gas-based, how would we even be able to know if it was there or not from so far away? we wouldnt know what signs to look for, as opposed to water-based life.
Spark wrote:
True - but that's only because all life on planet, if you will, came from a single Common Ancestor. That means all life on Earth is inherently the same and therefore we do not know any "other possibilities" of life - yet.
You get what I mean?
That is one reason NASA is so focused on finding water and looking for carbon-heavy bodies. All we know is what we can and have observed. There is a very real possibility there IS life 'as we know it' out there. And we cannot simply discard the idea of alternate elemental-based 'life', which I guess is the 'experts' point.SargeV1.4 wrote:
if it wasnt water-based, but instead maybe gas-based, how would we even be able to know if it was there or not from so far away? we wouldnt know what signs to look for, as opposed to water-based life.
Last edited by KEN-JENNINGS (2007-07-09 15:31:40)
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