Astrobiology & Extraterrestrial Life In The Universe – Voice of Biotecnika
Voice of Biotecnika Podcast
My first memory of an English movie is ET that I watched with my family in a rented video player and our new colour TV. I was merely 5-6 years old. Since then I have always wondered “Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?”
Hello, Hi, Namaste to all the listeners of Biotecnika! This is, Tithi, your host for today’s podcast and I’m here today to talk about Astrobiology – a subject that studies the potential for extraterrestrial life.
Well, first of all, let me tell you what exactly is Astrobiology? Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe. It encompasses the origin, evolution and history of life on Earth and along with all this, it also studies the potential for extraterrestrial life. So, as you can guess, Astrobiology is a relatively young, interdisciplinary science field. To be precise, Astrobiology unites physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, molecular biology, ecology, planetary science, geography, and geology to study “anything and everything about life on Earth in order to understand how life might arise and survive elsewhere in the Universe”.
To keep it simple, we can say that Astrobiology encompasses three major searches:
- The search for habitable environments in our Solar System and on planets around other stars;
- The search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry or life on Solar System bodies like Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Saturn’s moon Titan; and
- Research into the origins, early evolution, and diversity of life on Earth.
Extraterrestrial life has yet to be proven. But the scientific evidence that such microbial or complex life may be possible has potential to alter our understanding of the nature and meaning of life, and affect how we make decisions about issues facing the future of Earth.
Before I sign off, let me ask you a few questions:
- If the laws of physics and biology are universal, does it mean that what has happened here has happened elsewhere?
- Would the discovery of an organism on a distant planet revise our understanding of metaphysics?
- What are our moral responsibilities towards Earth if organisms are able to exist on other planets–or had once existed?
This will be all for today’s podcast. Stay tuned to be part of many more interesting upcoming podcasts from Biotecnika!
See you in the next episode soon
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