Everything we know about life – what it is, what it looks like and how it works – has come from studying life on our planet.
This creates a problem for those of us who look for signals from extraterrestrials.
- Why I'm convinced there is alien life in the Universe
- If aliens do exist, how would we communicate with them?
- Will we ever find life beyond Earth?
You might think that alien life will be very different from life on Earth – very alien. But that may be a little pessimistic.
While it’s good to be cautious and to remember that our experiences on Earth may not prepare us fully for all the weird and wonderful possibilities that exist across the Galaxy, it’s also true that not everything is possible.
Just as the universal laws of physics constrain the nature of planets and stars, so the laws of biology constrain what kind of life is possible, and in particular, what intelligent life must be like.
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