As planets are being discovered around other stars by the thousands, several scientific disciplines that traditionally exist in parallel are converging, including astronomy, planetary science, and biochemistry.
They share an ultimate goal: to locate and identify life elsewhere in the Universe. We are engaged in a search for habitability--conditions suitable for life--despite missing a clear definition of what life is. We are hunting for what we cannot yet sharply define. Nevertheless, we can make some informed inferences about what life needs.
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