Alien biology

Hi guys, i had a really big time logged out, so good to see the site refreshed and heavy-posted

I wanted to ask if Hydrogen, as a chemical element has anything to do with extraterrestrial form of life... I was reading a book, so that came up... Thank you...

hmmm...
Isnt there hydrogen on mars...
I heard microorganizm can live in hydrogen

So you believe it's some sort of breathing, like oxygen for humans?


[edit on 2/8/2006 by CommanderX]

I talked earlier about alien form of life, meaning human-like organisms and i enquired about their relation to our known chemical elements, such as magnisium which apparently use to make crafts... Do we know anything?

Well about magnesium, I just passed a chemistry class, and it seem that that element is reactive to water even the water in the air. So unless the planet is completely dry of water, a magnesium craft would probably be best as a suicide craft (or bomb). In my idea breathing hydrogen would be ok. (One thing is, is that plants breath yes, they breath Carbon Dioxide gas or CO2.) This is mostly because Hydrogen is as reactive and more reactive than Oxygen, and they are both gases H2 and O2 and they are both oh...shoot forgot the word I think it's diprodic (correct me if I'm worng). The only problem is that I see is that because Oxygen is less reactive that Hydrogen, the creature breathing Hydrogen would probably live less than a creature that breathes O2. This is because when a human breathes O2, the cell structure gets destroyed part by part because of Free Radicals. And since Hydrogen can be used for explosives...well just use your imagination.

OK, so i don't think we know much about how alien life is linked to our known chemical elements. I see lot of theories, though. And most seem to have a point. For example, John keel posted a theory concerning UFOs, talking about when they appear as fire balls. They change their light as we can see at most UFO reports(green, red, yellow). Keel made a well-prooven thought, saying that this fact can concern all spectral colours. Imagine a sequence at the rainbow. I read that theory at Colin Wilson's Alien Dawn, 1997. Basalisk2 thank you for your theory, but i'd mostly request standard thoughts, thinks that we know for sure(as far as we can determine this term) concerning chemistry...

[edit on 6/8/2006 by CommanderX]

Magnesium is very reactive but as soon as it's exposed to air an oxide layer forms on its surface which is not very reactive at all. Aircraft can be constructed from magnesium and some bike frames are (advantage been magnesium is very light). However magnesium is quite expensive so don't expect to see any fully magnesium 747's any time soon!

Well, first of all, since we don't know any aliens "for sure", we can only speculate on their biology and chemicals and the properties of their crafts and the sciences involved.

However, here's what I would say about Hydrogen...

I don't think it would work, in the standard idea of life.

In the standard idea, we have a world with a gravity of about a sixteenth to 4 times that of Earth. In any of those cases, Hydrogen, being the lightest element, has a very annoying tendancy to float to the top, and then drift off into space. Because of this, there is incredibly small amounts of original hydrogen left in the atmosphere, and it's totally inaccessible to us because it's so high up. The rest of the hydrogen is man/nature-made. It's not a chemical that would exist in great enough proportions to be the important element in a vascular system.

There's also another reason that was hinted at, and that is how Hydrogen is, rather dangerously, reactive with many other chemicals (chiefly, oxygen). Hydrogen needs very little energy-input to combine with oxygen and become water, which is why water is as rather abundant as it shockingly is.

So what little hydrogen does remain in the atmosphere, or if the mass of the planet is such that it can hold it down, is usually eaten up by the oxygen.


Now there ARE exceptions (as always).


Aliens from a gas giant could very well breath hydrogen. In gas giants, there's so much hydrogen that there simply isn't enough oxygen to turn it all into water. Also, the hydrogen that "floats" above is so abundant that all the upper clouds are primarily made out of it. The aliens from gas giants would be very strange indeed (and probably would never achieve space-flight or technology considering that there's no ground for them to make metals from), but they could use the hydrogen to keep afloat in the atmospheres - for if the creatures sunk down, they would be crushed by the pressures and burned by the temperatures.

Carl Sagan envisioned such an ecosystem, with Sinkers (micro-organisms that reproduce before they fall too far into the clouds, and then turbulence carries some offspring back up to the upper atmosphere where they start falling again), Floaters (giant, perhaps city-sized balloon-like creatures that feed off naturally occuring organic molecules in the atmosphere, and with the sun's heat, and feast on hydrogen to stay afloat), and Hunters (they eat the floaters for nutrition and pure hydrogen to stay afloat).


Also, on the topic of reactive chemicals, oxygen is also highly reactive. But we have to remember - life made all the oxygen on this world, and that oxygen poisoned almost everything, causing what was likely the greatest extinction ever, with only oxygen-tolerant organisms surviving.

I overheard a conversation others had in a discussion concerning the food requirements of the Greys it involved the mixing of living tissue which has been groundup or liquefied with hydrogen peroxide the organic soup is spread upon the bodies of the Greys they absorb or injest through the skin as well as expell wast they have no digestive system and some say they are clones at least some are lacking reproductive systems.

I'd like that Carl Sagan theory far more explained if you can, such as the oxygen exctinction too... Put a link if it's easier. Thanks for that stuff, i put interesting thoughts into consideration ;-) The key is not to stay too close to Science, cause this world, our world does not represents reality, but an open mind can realise it... Nothing is for sure and truth is the example...

[edit on 6/8/2006 by CommanderX]

This is a really fascinating thread. So far I'm finding all contributions to it very informative where I'm being informed about things I never knew before. Hope this dialogue will continue and thanks to those who so far have posted on this topic.

I think that There can be a variety of species of aliens that live of of any element on the periodic table, however they could also live off anything. They could have there own elements that they live off of,

Pantheria, a very interesting post I'd like to know your source ;-) So, you are thinking that hydrogen is consumed by aliens for living? Note that greys probably visited our planet "naked" some times. When you say organic tissue, what do you refer to? Thank you...


[edit on 6/8/2006 by CommanderX]

Originally posted by TeH PwNeR
I think that There can be a variety of species of aliens that live of of any element on the periodic table, however they could also live off anything. They could have there own elements that they live off of,

Could electromagnetism (or radiation) be one of the things they live off of?

Originally posted by Palasheea
Could electromagnetism (or radiation) be one of the things they live off of?

I think that their travel through time andForth Dimensions is quite a fact, but radiation hasn't something to do with their life. I can only tell that; they have immunity to radiation...

[edit on 6/8/2006 by CommanderX]

"Immunity to radiation" -- yes, come of it I recall reading that somewhere before. Good point.
I think I was wondering more about why we are seeing so many UFOs showing up near powerplants. I live right down the road from one and I've also seen a couple of ufo triangles (last Nov.) -- plus, my area has quite a history in UFO sightings and I've no doubt that part of the reason may be because we are right on one of the Great Lakes -- and that we have a powerplant (actually 2 going up the coast). But this does not have anything to do with Alien biology and more to do with those crafts they fly around in. So back to what you were saying.... yes, if they are soaking up energy or whatever from powerplants then they would have to have some kind of immunity toward radiation.

Well, COmmanderX, I'm flattered that you are intrigued by my postings , and though I find your search for informative inspiring, I must caution you about the "open mind". An open mind is a wonderful thing, but too many believe that an open mind also means one that is without critical thought. An open mind must be able to accept the possibility for something unexplainable, but must still attempt to explain it even if it is (presently) impossible.

For example, I do not know where you live or who you are, but I can be - at least moderately - certain that you are human, and are typing replies from a computer. An open mind realises that you "could" be also be a computer program, an alien, an entity, or even an accidental compiling of random information that somehow ended up in the form of a post. However, my critical mind, my balance, tells me that all those other possibilities are highly unlikely (even if possible), and that for all intents and purposes I should assume that you are, in fact, human.

By the same token, although I may not believe hydrogen-breathing life forms to be common, I still accept their possibility, but will automatically assume that the most common form of life will not be breathing hydrogen. With an open mind, I also recognize that I may be wrong, and future data and studies may change what I consider likely and unlikely.


Now as for Carl Sagan, I did a quick search for his theory, but came up with only what Wikipedia, briefly, has on it. To find it, go to; en.wikipedia.org... and look under the "Life on Jupiter" section, where it mentions what kind of life-forms could hypothetically live on such a planet. For a real good description, though, I would suggest heading out to your local library and picking up the tv mini-series on tape of "Cosmos", by Carl Sagan. It's more beautiful than anything I have ever known.


Finally, for the oxygen extinction, as you mentioned it, I learned about it first from a book my sister had. It mentioned how oxygen caused what was likely the largest extinction in history, and how it likely was the catalyst of the Cambrien Explosion (which is the sudden proliferation of new, large, multicellular life-forms). Searching for it, I have found that this event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe", and occured some 2500 MILLION years ago. At that time, life was still in its early forms. Almost every living thing was some form of anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that die when exposed to oxygen, since oxygen bonds easily with other molecules and can destroy important cellular chemicals). Plants had created so much oxygen, that almost every living thing on earth actually died. It's like having today's world filled with carbon dioxide - every oxygen-breathing thing would die.

However, the creatures that did survive had oxygen resistance - they had developed those wonderful nutrients you hear about called "anti-oxidants" - and could tolerate the larger quantities of oxygen.

Some of those creatures actually took an amazing step from that, and discovered how to use oxygen to extract energy from the nutrients in the plants - and thus did the first "animal" emerge. Every animal on this earth is descended from some of those different kinds of bacteria that could not only tolerate, but utilize, oxygen.

And oxygen was an amazing source of energy! When used to break down the chemicals in plants and quickly gain all the energy they had stored over weeks, months, or years, these creatures could grow larger, faster, and stronger. We now had the energy to develop limbs and muscles and things that use a lot of energy very quickly.


It's very likely that to have similar abilities - to be able to think and move and act quickly - aliens will need to have some kind of similar chemical process, perhaps not with oxygen... but then again it could very well be with oxygen. Personally, I think in the end aliens will have more in common with us than we could ever dream - and at the same time be so different that we could scarcely imagine.

Thank you, your commitement is more than just interesting

Thanks for the info...