I have already written in the past about how alien (in the sense of odd) nature can possibly be. Today I’d like to explore the concept from another perspective: what does make a plausible alien life form? This is a *very* long debate, scientifically speaking, and it will take many pages to even start to scratch the surface. There’s a full range of positions in between two extremes, which are: one, aliens would be so different from us we won’t even recognise them as technically alive; two, the laws of evolution will probably make them similar to us (provided they exist in the first place). Both arguments have their merits -incidentally, I’m writing about them from an academic point of view elsewhere. But the topic has an unique relevance for SF writers: plausible aliens make for a more interesting novel (or story) and the challenges to write alien life that allows for a suspension of disbelief are numerous, especially when we avoid featuring artificial life and stick to (exo)biology.
So this is what I offer for today’s reflection:
- A video about evolution, and the important distinction between analogous and homologous evolution. Hint: they differ for the presence of a common ancestor.
- A discussion about the most likely place we can find alien life in the Solar System: Europa. Jupiter’s moon seems to have all the ingredients for life, and we’re not far away from a mission to test if these assumptions are true. Have a look at this, this, and this.
” Both Nasa and the European Space Agency are gearing up to send missions to Jupiter and the system that orbits around it. The ESA hopes to send its Juice mission to Jupiter’s moons in 2022 – and it will look at the other moons that are thought to have large oceans hiding beneath their surfaces, Ganymede and Callisto, as well as Europa. Nasa’s Europa Clipper mission is being prepared for launch the same year.”
- Another video regarding the (rare) presence of the colour blue in nature… just in case you want to make your aliens blue-looking (I know I do).
[This is a scientific reference, in case you find it so interesting you want more: Cuthill, I., Allen, W., Arbuckle, K., Caspers, B., Chaplin, G., & Hauber, M. et al. (2017). The biology of colour. Science, 357(6350), doi:10.1126/science.aan0221 (Read it here).]
A fabulous and informative article, as ever, Steph. Many, many thanks:))
Thanks Sarah!