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Mon 28 Aug, 2006 03:05 am
Every time someone mentions aliens or lifeforms on other celestial bodies, they always refer to them as if having DNA. Have you ever considered that perhaps DNA and RNA are unique to our solar system? After all, it was by pure freakish chance that the required chemicals fused together when some asteroid brought them to Earth and made the first strand of RNA.
If we discovered "life" without DNA or RNA, we might have to change the definition of life altogether, or even create a new term to describe these entities. They might not have to feed or excrete. They may even not need to reproduce, if they existed until destroyed by other means.
These "life-forms" may have powers or appearances that we have not even imagined. They might be "non-corporeal" i.e. made out of energy. They might not even have evolution. Maybe, if they do reproduce, they never make mistakes in copying the alternate form or DNA, and therefore eradicate themselves before becoming a better species. Or they might have an intelligent form of evolution - they would evolve into beings that evolve faster.
I'm not sure that this topic has been brought up before, so please post your comments as I will be very interested as to what you have to say.
There is no way of really knowing. What you posit may very well be a possibility..............and it may not. We simply do not know.
Good point! I would think that carbon based life forms would have DNA. However, a college friend who had been a chemistry major (who switched to art her senior year and still had to do her senior seminar in chem) chose to write her senior seminar on the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
It seems to me -- I listened to her rehearse her presentation -- that she said that two other substances besides carbon can give rise to life. One was silicon. I can not remember the third. However, I do not think that silicon-based life forms would have DNA, although some other form of coding would have to have evolved.
As in "Following the reported anal probing, did anyone think to check for the presence of alien DNA?"
You win a free alien-baked muffin.
Maybe when they check for John Mark Karr's DNA we'll find out that he's an alien. That'd explain lot...
It would appear that some scientists may have already found alien life without DNA. I did a thread on this a while back:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=70816&highlight=
For some reason the mainstream media has been ignoring this possible historic event.
Very interesting. Unfortunately I couldn't load the link you provided in that forum.
Cancel that last statement.
So far I've only got 3 pages through the article, but is there any proof of this occurence?
I've read the article, and I'm totally convinced. The references, the scientific correctness, the photos, it all adds up. I also googled it to be sure and it came up with a heap of results.
I can't believe I've never heard of this before. It seems so odd that a discovery this big could pass me by. Maybe I'm not tuned in with the world, I don't know. I'm very excited about this personal discovery. Unfortunately, none of my friends believe me! Even when provided with evidence, they refuse to believe that extra-terrestrials have been discovered.
I've always believe in life outside of Earth, but I never believed in UFOs or anything like that. However, this is believable. The discovery of microorganisms is far more likely than some five armed freak from the planet Quuvzox in a highly conspicuous saucer shaped space ship landing in a wheat field.
However, one ought not to forget that for those who seek excitement, the arrival of extraterrestrial micro-organisms is ho hum. A contention that a "flying saucer" has landed in a wheat field is exciting--it's "sexy" news, and will attract the attention of editors whose prime consideration is circulation.
Witness the "crop circle" tomfoolery.
Oh please, not that. That wasn't alien life. It was merely an unknown piece of terrestrial life.
Wolf_ODonnell wrote:
Oh please, not that. That wasn't alien life. It was merely an unknown piece of terrestrial life.
Which would itself be huge, huge news. Personally, I'm skeptical of the whole thing, but if something comes out of it, cool.
aperson,
alien life would have something like DNA, perhaps very similar even, but it would not be the same. there are variations in the way DNA is represented even among terrestrial organismsm, what with the use of thymine or uracil etc...
stuh505 wrote:aperson,
alien life would have something like DNA, perhaps very similar even, but it would not be the same.
Why?
Quote:there are variations in the way DNA is represented even among terrestrial organismsm, what with the use of thymine or uracil etc...
U in DNA? Where?
Now, there is considerable variation in the way DNA is used, but's that's another story altogether.
Sofarasmostfolksseemtoknow,
removal of uracil from DNA is one of the unifying themes of all organisms.
I really doubt uracil would be present in DNA. The very reason Thymine is used instead of uracil is because one othe other nitrogenous bases can degrade to uracil if damaged.
Wolf_ODonnell wrote:
Oh please, not that. That wasn't alien life. It was merely an unknown piece of terrestrial life.
Without DNA?
Which can survive in tempertures higher than 300 degrees Celius?
Which came after a loud sonic boom was to be heard, indicating that a comet had entered the atmosphere?
And only appeared in the rain in a period of 10 days?
Quote:Without DNA?
Which can survive in tempertures higher than 300 degrees Celius?
Which came after a loud sonic boom was to be heard, indicating that a comet had entered the atmosphere?
And only appeared in the rain in a period of 10 days?
I admit that I am curious too, but let's not forget that although these findings were published it was not exactly a highly reputable source and it was in broken English. When considering the temperature that survival is possible, it's very easy to misinterpret the data as well...increase the temperature in a lab and it may appear that the organism is surviving but in fact it is slowly dying, or unable to actually reproduce at that temperature.
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