The vast majority of our movies about encounters with aliens involve extraterrestrials that come in somewhat of a humanoid shape and fairly the same size as humans. That makes it much easier to cast those roles. And science fiction rarely ever deals with planets populated by life that's not intelligent enough to interact with humans. But now that we are able to detect planets outside of our solar systems and speculate on their conditions, scientists are entertaining the possibility of life one those planets. What form would those living things realistically take? Gizmodo talked to four scientists about what alien life might really be like. Caitlin Ahrens of the University of Arkansas said,
I’ll put “life” in quotes due to it being a very vague term in regards to aliens. We have carbon-based life. But there’s theories for sulphur-based and other chemistries to form some biological structures. “Life” could mean anything from microscopic blue cupcake-loving worms to sentient snorkels that like polka—not necessarily human-like. Not necessarily intelligent either.
Read the rest of what they had to say about alien life at Gizmodo.
(Image credit: Jim Cooke/Gizmodo)