We only know of one planet in the universe that hosts life: Earth. So when we search for other life out there in the Universe we look for what we know.
We look for water, and ozone, and methane, and a whole bunch of carbon containing molecules because we know that those ingredients point to life here on Earth.
But what if life out there in the Universe is NOT as we know it, and we’re missing the signs because it doesn’t have the same signatures of Earth-life?!
This is a real possibility, and there are astrochemists and astrobiologists out there who are working through all the options of what we think life could be like. So let's chat about the fundamental biochemistry of life and pick out a few things that could be different to Earth...
00:00 - Introduction
02:59 - Solvents: if it’s not water like on Earth, what could life use instead?
06:20 - Solvents: Liquid carbon dioxide
07:44 - Solvents: Liquid sulphur
08:38 - Solvents: Liquid sulphuric acid
12:20 - Organics: if it’s not carbon based life like on Earth, what could it be instead?
14:55 - Organics: Silicon-based life
16:37 - Chirality: a mirror image to life on Earth?
18:39 - How we’d even find life as we don’t know it
22:02 - Bloopers