I read a long time ago an essay by Asimov that described what elements could support life as a building block and why most elements cannot. I didn’t fully understand that at the time but it was interesting to see why carbon based makes sense and some other random element does not work.
Similarly, I wonder if under different planetary conditions, smart alien life (so not single cell life) can be very tiny or very large, or if there are biological constraints that would restrict that size range regardless of basic setup.
In: 324
I heard a wonderful sci-fi story many years ago. We made contact with aliens and agreed a site and time for them to land. So the reception was set up for them to land on an airfield. We spoke to them as they were coming in. They said they were coming into land at the specified coordinates but could not see us. We could see that they were indeed coming down in the centre of the airfield, but we couldn’t see them. Then they said they hit water and we’re sinking fast and we’re drowning. Confused a member of the reception committee ran out to the centre of the airfield where they were supposed to be but all he could see were puddles.
Latest Answers