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"There can't be life anywhere else... everywhere else is too cold for liquid iron, and iron is the only solvent with the unique properties required for..." :)
by api 7y ago
"There can't be life anywhere else... everywhere else is too cold for liquid iron, and iron is the only solvent with the unique properties required for..." :)
- adrianN 7y agoLife as I understand it seems to require complex molecules or other structures that can store and process information. Are there such things that are stable at temperatures where it rains iron? I don't know of any candidates.
- avmich 7y ago> ...or other structures that can store and process information. Relay computers can be constructed primarily from iron... relay solenoids, ferrit memory, coils, conductors, contacts... only energy sources seem to need some other elements...
- gliese1337 7y agoWhy would you expect to know of any candidates? It's not like we've done a ton of research into complex polymer chemistry in liquid iron solvents.
- nine_k 7y agoI suspect that the internals of stars, somewhere in the photosphere, can contain rather complex structures, due to the very high pressure and electric / magnetic fields. Those could even be a self-sustained "life" in the sense the Conway's game, or maybe even more complex. Molecular bonds may happen not the only medium supporting simple automata. From them, something more complex has a chance to develop.
- Qahlel 7y ago... Stainless Steel proteins. Can you fathom proteins made from carbon? They would be very easy to break and unsustainable..
- ianai 7y agoFrom the chemistry we’re aware of on earth, sure. But I imagine the energies required for our water cycle based life would look astronomical compared to the energies available in a place like Pluto. This sounds like a cool problem space for computational chemistry.
- wahern 7y agoYou say it like that instability is a bad thing. As Musk might say, if you want to build a robust and efficient factory for complex machines, iterate, iterate, iterate.
- Insanity 7y agoWhenever I hear people say they "look for earth-like planets" for life, because life can't exist on planets with conditions 'harmful to life'. (Such as extreme colds), I wonder _why_ they think so. I'm not educated on the subject, but it seems to me that there's no good reason to think life can't exist in those places simply because we don't live in such a place. (And, even on earth, there's microbial life in the oddest of places)
- bouchard 7y agoIt's easier to look for conditions we already know can lead to life.
- bildung 7y agoNot really qualified to answer you, but I commonly read that it boils down to carbon being the base for life on earth, because that material can form complex bonds with so many other elements, without requiring much energy to do so. No other element seems to come close, though another contender is silicon. But if we assume carbon as the base component of other life, we also have to assume similar ranges of temperature etc. for it to thrive.
- fyfy18 7y agoAnd from that liquid water is an essential part to all known life on earth. The temperature range needs to be similar to that of Earth for water to exist on the surface.
- greglindahl 7y agoSilicon chemistry runs slower than carbon chemistry. There's more to it than just assuming carbon.
- azernik 7y agoThere's been a lot of work done on alternate biochemistries. Most of the alternate chemistries that look practical are at low temperatures, not high ones, because high temperatures inherently break down complex molecules. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemi..., or look up Cronin's work on metal-based self-replicating structures.