Origins: Fourteen Billion Years Of Cosmic Evolution - Plot & Excerpts
“Astrobiologists” or “bioastron- omers” grapple with the issues presented by life beyond Earth, whatever forms that life may take. For now, astrobiologists can only speculate about extraterrestrial life or simulate extraterrestrial conditions, to which they either expose terrestrial life forms, testing how they may survive harsh and unfamiliar situations, or subject mixtures of inanimate molecules, creating a variant on the classic Miller-Urey experiment or a gloss on Wächtershäuser’s research. This combination of speculation and experiment has led them to several generally accepted conclusions, which—to the extent that they describe the real universe—have highly significant implications. Astrobiologists now believe that the existence of life throughout the universe requires: 1. a source of energy; 2. a type of atom that allows complex structures to exist; 3. a liquid solvent in which molecules can float and interact; and 4. sufficient time for life to arise and to evolve.
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