Extraterrestrial life forms: will they look like us?
People love to fantasize thinking about future alien encounters, as Hollywood knows well having exploited the theme in a thousand ways, from ET to Alien. But what form could alien life take?
Alien life could take many forms, from that of amoebae to that of humanoids, but what will be the most likely? Scientists have long wondered about the problem and have come to the conclusion that some forms are more likely than others.
According to dr. Margaret Aderin-Pocock most likely, we will find alien life forms structurally similar to marine organisms, especially jellyfish, that will use light pulses to communicate and will be able to absorb nutrients essential for growth and reproduction from the air, through a kind of “oral cavity”.
The doctor Aderin-Pocock's theory is based on the fact that terrestrial life was originally born in the ocean and the evolution of extraterrestrial life could follow a similar path, but instead of water the habitat on another planet could be the atmosphere itself.
One of the most common life forms on other planets could be cockroaches: the structure of their body allows them to adapt to various conditions, even resisting the consequences of a nuclear explosion. Millions of years of evolution of these insects show that beatles could also exist very far away from the Earth.
Do not be so surprised, Hollywood he has already taken this idea in one of its blockbuster of all time, Men in Black, and it would not be the first time that cinema anticipated reality (see the ionic pulse engine of which we have already spoken).
According to Simon Conway Morris, professor at the University of Cambridge who deals with evolutionary paleobiology, the aliens could be similar to us not only in the physical structure, but also in moral qualities.
In an article titled “Aliens like us?” (you can find it here) explained: “the evidence we can draw from the evolution of life on Earth convincingly supports the thesis that human intelligence as a result of evolution is inevitably inevitable”.
So the aliens will have a propensity for violence like us, they will know greed as well as non-compulsion: “Darwin's theory of evolution is universal, which will help us, in some cases, to establish contact with other civilizations” because having the same characters and the same weaknesses will promote mutual understanding. If it is good or not, it is not yet known.
Inorganic life forms
Many researchers like Conway Morris they believe that extraterrestrial life forms are similar to those of Earth, but multicellular organisms that do not need oxygen have already been discovered.
This information can transform our vision of organic life: more and more biologists support the possibility of inorganic life, since in nature there are many others “building materials” such as phosphorus, sulfur or other chemical compounds that under conditions different from that of the Earth, they could be exploited by alien organisms for their own vital activity process.
Population of deep water or air
The English astrobiologist Lewis Dartel believes that the evolution of life on other planets can be influenced by factors similar to those of Earth. For instance, in “watery” world the inhabitants could resemble animals that live in the depths of our oceans, while on planets with an atmosphere denser than Earth there are more chances to discover creatures that move in the air.