Return to this
forum's top page
NewsHour
Backgrounders
June 10, 1997:
A Gergen dialogue
with William Broad about his book "The Universe Below."
April 10, 1997:
NASA scientists explain the
findings from Europa.
Browse the NewsHour's science
coverage.
Outside
Links
Browse stories from the New York Times by William J. Broad and others on Europa. (note:
free, but registration is required.)
Browse Simon & Schusters' page on "The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea."
|
 John
Blackmore of Ottawa, Ontario, asks:
This Europa discovery and tie-on with the recent studies deep in our
oceans is exciting. It points to a paradigm shift from our idea that
life needs to have the "Garden of Eden" of storybooks--sunlight, water
and earth--to happen. Still, I find that we are taking earth-based
systems and trying to find them elsewhere. Isn't it possible that
life could develop in another fashion, based on something else than the
organic molecules that we are familiar with? Can there be some other "clay"
of life other than hydrogen, oxygen and carbon?
William Broad responds:
Absolutely. Scientists have tended to be very chauvinistic in speculating
about alien life forms. A few mavericks have pushed the boundaries over
the
years, talking about crystalline life that would require no water or
living systems based on silicon, an atom just below carbon on the periodic
table that bonds very nicely with other elements, as carbon does so beautifully.
Still, in a universe of endless theoretic possibilities, it makes sense
to pay close attention to what we know for sure about differing types of
possible life.
My new book, "The Universe Below", shows how the deep sea is in
fact becoming a map to understanding where to look for extraterrestrial
life. Chapter Three, "Garden of Eden," tells of the discovery of the sea's
dark ecosystems, explores one of these jungles a mile-and-a-half down,
and describes their emerging role as models for extraterrestrial ecosystems,
not only in the cosmos at large but throughout the rocky moons and planets
of our own solar system.
|
