Of all the life they had to find it had to be scorpions. Couldn't it have been slugs? I'd have been happy with moss.
Shouldn't be long before we can set up expiditions to gather up some of these and see how they taste. The traditional thing to do with any new discovery of animal life through the ages.
I really hope we do find something in our solar system in the not too distant future. I'd hate to go to my grave thinking it was totally barren. I'd be happy with slime mould, algae or fungi. Or alien versions.
The more they research the more likely life in the universe looks. It's got to the stage where most people can rationally agree that it's likely that life exists elsewhere. Over time the chances are getting better as they find the extremes that life can thrive in and adapt to.
On the other side of that improving odds are the discoveries that planets are more common than we thought, moons that might support life and conditions on some solar bodies that look increasingly favourable in our system for life.
For purposes of terraforming I'd imagine finding a native lifeform on another planet or moon would be a massive boost to that research.
I hear that slaters taste like fish and some insects and other big bugs do too. Perhaps this could actually work with scorpions? I'm game if you are. All we need to wait for are some space scorpions being sold on eBay and I'll get us two portions.
I seem to remember some Russian scientists making a good case for simple life on Venus before. I wish I could remember the work or a name. It was a very interesting look on things and had merit as it pointed out how things may have been overlooked at the time. With the many years since then it's quite possible he was right as opinions seem to be swinging that way.
Granted, it's not sexy alien women that we were promised for decades by TV, film, radio, games and books but each step gets us closer.
Why does he need to define life? We can use our current understanding of life. The only difference is that everything we've found on Earth dies at temperature. The hottest stuff can live in is about 130c, and we reckon DNA gets buggered around 150c, but there could be something we're missing.
That is only because our planet has a more 'hospitable' atmosphere that we are 'tailored' too. If you brought the Venusian scorpion here, it would die from hypothermia and a massive lack of whatever it breathes on Venus. There are probably aliens on Venus saying the exact same thing.
I can understand that people say what they say for a reason but going HERP DERP EARTH ANIMALS DIE THERE is like saying an elephant can't survive at the bottom of the Marianas trench so nothing down there can survive. It's just a bunch of scientists too full of themselves and basing things on their information instead of doing what science should do and theorise, experiment and observe.
>>1970 >Why does he need to define life? We can use our current understanding of life.
If we use the definition as used in biology then no, we couldn't use our "current understanding of life" and still claim that life exist on Venus, because the conditions are too hot for it. If you want to say that a different kind of life is possible, that's fine (and I doubt any scientist would argue against it), but then you get into the "define life" question. The systemic complexity of a star is far beyond that of simple single-celled organisms, but is it alive?
>>1969 Yeah. Earth DNA gets buggered at 150 C. Venus 'DNA' wouldn't. Remember that earth biochemistry has to be relatively facile so that it can run efficiently at ambient/body temperature. Venus biochemistry would have no such requirement and would require and tolerate much higher temperatures.
