Nasa is to reveal Mars water secrets...

[T_Bone]

ivier wrote:
Myth: Chlorophyll is green
Fact: Most Chlorophyll on Earth is green, BUT alot of it is purple, and has 70% efficiency when compared to green chlorophylls. Green however is NOT neccessarily as efficent as chlorophyll can get, just the most efficient, that earth life has found. 95% of all plant species on earth use green chlorophyll, but theres still the other 4.9999999% using purple. but there are other chlorophylls as well, they are quite rare, usually found in unusual algae and moss.

To say mars has no photosythisizing life because there is no green, is the same as saying, a city has no taxis, because there are no yellow cars.

Hell, who's to say all life would even be carbon based to begin with? here we are looking for green and carbon dioxide, while it's possible there's grey's excreting sand as a byproduct of silicone based respiration.

[T_Bone]

KennyR wrote:

T_Bone wrote:
Hell, who's to say all life would even be carbon based to begin with? here we are looking for green and carbon dioxide, while it's possible there's grey's excreting sand as a byproduct of silicone based respiration.

Silicon-based life will never be anything more than sci-fi. Silicon shares many properties with carbon, but it does not form long chains. Carbon forms a bewildering number of compounds. Silicon does not. It's too metallic and doesn't like covalent bonds - especially not with itself.

Silicon makes rocks. Carbon makes chemistry.

It may be boring to most people, but the reason life is carbon based and green is the same way large planets are round - they just can't be any other way.

For someone so liberal in politics, you sure are an old conservative fart in other areas ;-)

Life need not necessarily be anything resembling that on earth, for all we know, the next lifeform may resemble self reproducing nanobots more than they do organisms.
 

Something just crossed my mind, I wonder if something would necessarily have to be self reproducing to be considered alive?

[T_Bone]

whabang wrote:

Something just crossed my mind, I wonder if something would necessarily have to be self reproducing to be considered alive?

There has been certain disputes about viruses' being or non-being, AFAIK.

I was thinking more along the lines of, like, say we found GOD  floating around wearing a white robe and smoking a pipe. Ok, maybe not god, but something that's obviously alive/intelligent. Do we actually have to hold him to self replicating in order to consider him alive? Even if the thing is smart enough to argue the point on his own?  :lol:

Never mind... just woke from a really strange Monty Python-esqe dream.  :-P

[T_Bone]

Well, if we do find insect like life on Mars, I for one say we strike first!  :destroy:

We've got enough damn bugs already!