Not breathing oxygen is way more toxic, though. That will kill you in a few minutes.
Sure, I imagine off-world lifeforms having entirely different metabolism. Like when we hear “this planet has a methane atmosphere” it’s like holy cow, sounds rough, but alien entities would possibly think the same thing about our planet of water and nitrogen. Imagine how horrible it would sound to someone who was water-soluble. “H2O rains down from the sky!!”
You live on a world where the temperature is only on average 288K? It’s so cold there that H2O exists in its solid form on the surface in places!!! How can you people even move let alone have any active biological processes?
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Ayo, when you purge our planet, can you take out Devin first please? He ate my crayon in pre even though I TOLD him not to just a minute before!
We keep finding life on earth in places where we didn’t think life was possible. And yet, when we look at the stars we have the nerve to talk about there being a “goldilocks zone” for planets in other solar systems, like that’s the only way life could exist there.
I’m sure there’s life out there somewhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if carbon/water based life turns out to be a minority in the universe.
Yes, water is a simple compound made of some of the most common elements in the universe, so it’s reasonable to think other life might also evolve to use it. Carbon is also a really handy element for making complex molecules, and is also really common. But, it’s a failure of the imagination to think that life elsewhere has to follow the same basic chemistry as here on earth.
Unfortunately, most life will likely be Carbon based, in some manner (synthetic life could be different). The key is forming the large, complex molecules that make life, life. You need an element that can form chains. You also need to attach things to those chains.
The only 2 atoms that can do this are carbon and silicon. Both can form “organic” type molecules. Unfortunately, silicon has an additional reaction pathway that makes the chain easily break down in the presence of water. The conditions for silicon based life are so odd as to be unlikely to happen on the scale needed by natural processes. There might be some work arounds we don’t know about, they would be extremes.
Synthetic life is another story. Once you have active control over your environment, a number of other options open up. The first step is the kicker however, getting from abiotic natural rubble to a working replicator.
There’s a reason we are looking in Goldilocks zones, they are the most likely environment for the only process that seems viable.
Man, I love science people. Like, are you guys aware of how cool you are? I love being around people who talk about awesome shit like this, even tho I don’t understand most of it. Keep being you o7
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Linus Pauling (the Linus Pauling) had a moment in his life when he became obsessed with the idea that antioxidants would make us all live forever.
It’s also worth noting that anaerobic organisms are a thing, and they die too. Yes, cells suffer with oxidation and this is indeed related to aging, but if you remove all oxygen from the equation, any replication of genetic material will still slowly age and eventually kill you.
So the key is to find a way to stop my cells from replicating 🤔 /s
Here’s a link to an article that’s not from 2007 but 2019 on antioxidants. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6828919/
Yeah i was thinking the same thing lol I just didn’t want to say it
Fun fact: humans aren’t responsible for the first mass extinction caused by organisms polluting the atmosphere with poisonous gas. Blue-green algae did it first, with “a decrease in the size of the biosphere of >80%”.
We’re going for the speed-run not the first completion 👍
The 100% run.
Probably more like ‘slowly corroding’ from the inside.
Combustion is rapid oxidation, corrosion is slow oxidation, therefore corrosion is slow fire.
Are the aliens fusion-based lifeforms? They have to get their energy somewhere.
Eating hydrogen and letting out high-pitched helium farts?
Suddenly the Wow! Signal makes sense. Just aliens helium-farting into the mic to troll humans.
Aliens view earth like the rest of us view Australia
How do aliens view Australia then?
Oh yah, the DEATH BREEDERS
Not only is our atmosphere made of rocket fuel, but our planet’s crust is made up of the most oxidizing substances in the universe.
Our whole planet is a massive bomb waiting for the right trigger to set it off.
The atmosphere is made of rocket oxidizer, not fuel. Fuel would be something that reacts with oxygen: Hydrogen, Methane, etc.
We also have to regularly eat metal to live.
Why do we need to eat metals but cannot do allomancy with it? SMH we’re living in the worst timeline.
This reminds me of the Deathworlders series.
Plănts: We will make our own food and output a poisonous gas, that way nobody will bother us.
Animals: Allow us to introduce ourselves.
Pretty sure there’s some worms or something that live by deep sea vents which breathe sulfur not oxygen and are believed to live forever because of this.
Core takeaway: huff sulfur, live forever
