From: hils@saynotospam.net   
      
   On 08/10/16 23:02, RS Wood wrote:   
   > On 2016-10-08, Hils  wrote:   
   >> "A bizarre microbe found deep in a gold mine in South Africa could   
   >> provide a model for how life might survive in seemingly uninhabitable   
   >> environments through the cosmos. Known as Desulforudis audaxviator, the   
   >> rod-shaped bacterium thrives 2.8 kilometers underground in a habitat   
   >> devoid of the things that power the vast majority of life on   
   >> Earth—light, oxygen, and carbon. Instead, this “gold mine bug” gets   
   >> energy from radioactive uranium in the depths of the mine. Now,   
   >> scientists predict that life elsewhere in the universe might also feed   
   >> off of radiation, especially radiation raining down from space."   
   >   
   > Interesting.  Imagine finding our species' biology and ecology are   
   > actually a statistical outlier, and our search for life elsewhere was   
   > biased by notions of what life must 'require' that turn out to   
   > ultimately, biased.   
   >   
   > There's almost certainly a good scifi book out there that takes this   
   > theme on.  Hope someone can recommend it.   
      
   Try this (or your favourite bookseller):   
      
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vacuum-Diagrams-Xeelee-Sequence-Stephen/dp/0061059048   
      
   personally, I think the longer novel format of much of Baxter's work   
   highlights his weakness around soft science (and real people, suggesting   
   having lived his life in a bourgeois liberal bubble of near-caricature   
   character) but Vacuum Diagrams is outstanding, and touches upon many   
   variants of what you suggest.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)