Is There a Competior to Dna?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Life on earth as we know it is very, very dependent on this relationship between dna r n a proteins. Ean can we be so bold as to imagine that that would be a feature of alien life as well? I mean, d an a is just such a good molecule for sending information down through generations a, there's really no competitor to it. There may well have been competing bi chemistries that have all gone extinct - you would expect if dna were were much more an wayto run things.

If extraterrestrial life is out there — not just microbial slime, but big, complex, macroscopic organisms — what will they be like? Movies have trained us to think that they won’t be that different at all; they’ll even drink and play music at the same cafes that humans frequent. A bit of imagination, however, makes us wonder whether they won’t be completely alien — we have zero data about what extraterrestrial biology could be like, so it makes sense to keep an open mind. Arik Kershenbaum argues for a judicious middle ground. He points to constraints from physics and chemistry, as well as the tendency of evolution to converge toward successful designs, as reasons to think that biologically complex aliens won’t be utterly different from us after all.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Arik Kershenbaum received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from the University of Haifa. He is currently College Lecturer and Director of Studies at Girton College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens — and Ourselves.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.