XPost: rec.arts.sf.movies, rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: newsposter@andor.dropbear.id.au   
      
   On Fri, 27 Apr 2018 18:40:08 +1200, Your Name  wrote:   
   | On 2018-04-27 05:32:22 +0000, Thomas Koenig said:   
   |> Your Name  schrieb:   
   |>>   
   |>> The real problem is that scientists are blinkered into the belief that   
   |>> life of any sort /must/ have water, which is moronically silly.   
   |>   
   |> Water has a range of qualities that make it suitable for complex   
   |> molecules. There is a lot of it around, it has such low energy,   
   |> it will be found in a reasonably pure state, it allows for   
   |> condensation reactions with polar leaving groups, it has   
   |> very strong hydrogen bonds, it dissolves salts...   
   |   
   | All true, on Earth. Many other planets and other life forms are almost   
   | certainly completely different.   
      
      
   No, chemistry and physics are the same everywhere. Water will have the   
   same properties throughout the universe.   
      
      
   |>> We have no idea what other, non-Earth, living may or may not need. In some   
   |>> cases water is probably poisonness to them.   
   |>   
   |> We know organic chemistry pretty well.   
   |   
   | We may know *Earth-based* organic chemistry "pretty well" ... we know   
   | absolutely nothing about extraterrestrial organic chemistry. There are   
   | very likely alien lifeforms that find water poisoness while happily   
   | sipping away on a Sulphric-acid Cola and breathing arsenic gas.   
      
      
   Again, chemistry is universal.   
      
      
   | Blinkering themselves to what they *THINK* they already know is what   
   | too many scientists (and too many people in general) do well. They   
   | can't accept that something might be different and not what they know,   
   | and that hamstrings them from making some discoveries.   
   |   
   | Scientists used to think nothing could live near "toxic" volcanic tubes   
   | ... yet they did discover life there when they bothered to look. Same   
   | with deep caves, frozen land, deserts, etc., etc. Scientists used to   
   | believe the Earth was flat and the Sun revolved around it ... until   
   | someone decided to actually think otherwise and check into it.   
   |   
   | Real science is about discovery, not blindly thinking you already know   
   | it all and using tunnel vision to look at things.   
      
      
   --   
   Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC.     http://andor.dropbear.id.au/   
     Asking for technical help in newsgroups?  Read this first:   
        http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#intro   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)