Unless intelligent beings are tinkering with DNA I believe that the seed of life is the same throughout the universe. The implications will be that chances are humans will pretty much look like humans. Ofcourse there is evolution by radiation and environment but the effects will not be much different than here on earth.

The conditions for organic-life must be within certain limits if it wants to flourish....if not, it will die.

Originally posted by zatara
Unless intelligent beings are tinkering with DNA I believe that the seed of life is the same throughout the universe. The implications will be that chances are humans will pretty much look like humans. Ofcourse there is evolution by radiation and environment but the effects will not be much different than here on earth.

The conditions for organic-life must be within certain limits if it wants to flourish....if not, it will die.

edit on 18/4/2012 by zatara because: (no reason given)

Don't forget evolution is based on chance. When a mutation in the DNA occurs, it is either harmful, beneficial, or neutral. Organisations with a harmful mutation generally will not survive to reproduce, and organisms with a beneficial mutation will generally do well and produce more offspring, so the mutation spreads. This is how evolution works, so different mutations have a different outcome. This means something completely alien to this planet may not look anything like us, even if at some point we shared common ancestors (be it a single or multi celled organism). Other planets also have different conditions, so what may be considered beneficial here on earth may in fact be harmful elsewhere.

Humans, in my opinion, have a bad design. We are very physically vulnerable. Our brains have evolved enormously but we seem to be a bit behind everywhere else. I'm not going to argue with mother nature though, evolution is an extraordinary process and we're how we are for a reason.

Originally posted by zatara
Unless intelligent beings are tinkering with DNA I believe that the seed of life is the same throughout the universe. The implications will be that chances are humans will pretty much look like humans. Ofcourse there is evolution by radiation and environment but the effects will not be much different than here on earth.

The conditions for organic-life must be within certain limits if it wants to flourish....if not, it will die.

Humans will look like humans? You mean intelligent alien life will look like humans? I agree, that they plausibly share some traits, like e.g. bilateral symmetry in body plan, but I don't think anything implies that they would look like humans. The most intelligent life on Earth would look very different if certain rock hadn't hit Earth 65 million years ago, e.g. much more lizard like..

The seed might be the same or very similar, if panspermia is true but that doesn't mean that the genetic mutations will be the same. I don't see any reason why all intelligent life would look like humans. Environment dictates evolution, so it would make much more sense that if other intelligent life exists, it would be noticeably different from us. They might need different atmospheric conditions to survive, have different skin texture, it really depends on the planet they originated on.

Too soon to tell on what intelligent life will look like. Sure, they may look like humans, if they come from a world that had per-existing needs for bipedalism and arms. But outside of our solar system, we aren't sure about how many of these types of worlds exist. For all we know, 99% of the planets are either gas planets or water worlds. Maybe intelligent life more closely resembles a dolphin.

Originally posted by SpearMint

Originally posted by zatara
Unless intelligent beings are tinkering with DNA I believe that the seed of life is the same throughout the universe. The implications will be that chances are humans will pretty much look like humans. Ofcourse there is evolution by radiation and environment but the effects will not be much different than here on earth.

The conditions for organic-life must be within certain limits if it wants to flourish....if not, it will die.

edit on 18/4/2012 by zatara because: (no reason given)

Don't forget evolution is based on chance. When a mutation in the DNA occurs, it is either harmful, beneficial, or neutral. Organisations with a harmful mutation generally will not survive to reproduce, and organisms with a beneficial mutation will generally do well and produce more offspring, so the mutation spreads. This is how evolution works, so different mutations have a different outcome. This means something completely alien to this planet may not look anything like us, even if at some point we shared common ancestors (be it a single or multi celled organism). Other planets also have different conditions, so what may be considered beneficial here on earth may in fact be harmful elsewhere.

Humans, in my opinion, have a bad design. We are very physically vulnerable. Our brains have evolved enormously but we seem to be a bit behind everywhere else. I'm not going to argue with mother nature though, evolution is an extraordinary process and we're how we are for a reason.

edit on 11/27/10 by SpearMint because: (no reason given)

It depends on what time-line evolution started on other planets. If we will find an other planet with intelligent life but do not look like humans doesn't mean they are not...Their seed has the same origine but have evolved mauybe 1 million years further than us. Same with all other organisms....like plants...they probably do not look like anything here on earth but when started out pretty much the same as here on earth.

Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

Accidently posted twice, my bad

Originally posted by GaVinCe
Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

It is a question of chemistry....like deepsea-divers can function on different kinds of gas-mixtures after slowly introducing them to their bodies and turn back to normal gas/pressure after slow de-compression. But the thing is that the organic chemistry must be sound and replacement gasses for O2 will cause no problems for the fysical body.

If an organism has adapted to a diverent environment it has still the same primal dna like its 'brother' on an other planet that hasn't evolved to a changed environment. If it was not able to adapt it would become an extinct organism.

What I try to say is that the primal seed of life on every life-sustainable planet in the universe started out the same. For survival the conditions on that planet must be between certain marges and from there it all depends on how it will adapt to its environment...like negro's look different compared to white people because of their pigmentation and primal environment.

Originally posted by zatara

Originally posted by GaVinCe
Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

It is a question of chemistry....like deepsea-divers can function on different kinds of gas-mixtures after slowly introducing them to their bodies and turn back to normal gas/pressure after slow de-compression. But the thing is that the organic chemistry must be sound and replacement gasses for O2 will cause no problems for the fysical body.

If an organism has adapted to a diverent environment it has still the same primal dna like its 'brother' on an other planet that hasn't evolved to a changed environment. If it was not able to adapt it would become an extinct organism.

What I try to say is that the primal seed of life on every life-sustainable planet in the universe started out the same. For survival the conditions on that planet must be between certain marges and from there it all depends on how it will adapt to its environment...like negro's look different compared to white people because of their pigmentation and primal environment.

Okay, thats almost the perfect answer I've been looking for but...
Is that answer still pheasable for a micro-organism found on a meteroite for e.g.

You say "If an organism has adapted to a diverent environment it has still the same primal dna like its 'brother'" but I mean in terms of, that life form not originating from an earthly living organsim then does the same still apply?

Originally posted by GaVinCe
Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

You do understand that lots of life on Earth doesn't need oxygen either? In fact, they die under oxygen exposure. In fact, O2 appeared on Earth only because of cyanobacteria. It was a metabolic byproduct, and a toxin to most life around that time..

Originally posted by rhinoceros

Originally posted by GaVinCe
Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

You do understand that lots of life on Earth doesn't need oxygen either? In fact, they die under oxygen exposure. In fact, O2 appeared on Earth only because of cyanobacteria. It was a metabolic byproduct, and a toxin to most life around that time..

edit on 19-4-2012 by rhinoceros because: (no reason given)

I know this, I was using mammals as an example..

But thats kind of what I'm getting at, say there is a planet containing only Carbon Monoxide for example. Now Carbon Monoxide is poisonous to us humans but how do we know there aren't life forms on that planet that have evolved to flourish is a Carbon Monoxide environment? Does that make sense?

Originally posted by GaVinCe
But thats kind of what I'm getting at, say there is a planet containing only Carbon Monoxide for example. Now Carbon Monoxide is poisonous to us humans but how do we know there aren't life forms on that planet that have evolved to flourish is a Carbon Monoxide environment? Does that make sense?

Thing is, cellular respiration requires oxygen. 99.999% of multicellular life on Earth needs oxygen. The things that don't are very tiny. I'm no chemist, but afaik CO doesn't really work as electron acceptor. But maybe some other gas. Such a shame that I know almost nothing about chemistry..

Originally posted by GaVinCe

Originally posted by zatara

Originally posted by GaVinCe
Whats to say that other life on other planets, need the same exact things we need?

Why can't a planet abundant with CO2 harvest life dependable on that, like we are dependant on O2

Whose to say theres not life on say 'one of jupiters moons' that doesnt need O2 to live but can breathe and live off other elements?

It is a question of chemistry....like deepsea-divers can function on different kinds of gas-mixtures after slowly introducing them to their bodies and turn back to normal gas/pressure after slow de-compression. But the thing is that the organic chemistry must be sound and replacement gasses for O2 will cause no problems for the fysical body.

If an organism has adapted to a diverent environment it has still the same primal dna like its 'brother' on an other planet that hasn't evolved to a changed environment. If it was not able to adapt it would become an extinct organism.

What I try to say is that the primal seed of life on every life-sustainable planet in the universe started out the same. For survival the conditions on that planet must be between certain marges and from there it all depends on how it will adapt to its environment...like negro's look different compared to white people because of their pigmentation and primal environment.

Okay, thats almost the perfect answer I've been looking for but...
Is that answer still pheasable for a micro-organism found on a meteroite for e.g.

You say "If an organism has adapted to a diverent environment it has still the same primal dna like its 'brother'" but I mean in terms of, that life form not originating from an earthly living organsim then does the same still apply?

My previous post was actually meant for you...maybe you find it interesting too.
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