Warp wrote:
> nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> carbon-based life.
> 
>   Has any form of (intelligent) complex life which is not based on chemistry
> similar to our own, and/or which is not heavily dependent on water, been
> even seriously conjectured?

Silicon, yes. Same column as carbon.

In any case, it's hard to say what life needs to survive, with only one 
sample planet. Oxygen killed almost all the life, and now life flourishes 
with it. We have worms living in the bottom of the ocean off sulphuric 
vents. Etc.

I don't think we'll know one way or another until we either get out there, 
or we build spectroscopes that can analyze the atmospheres of rocky planets 
around other stars.

>   AFAIK, it's physically impossible to get anything even remotely usable
> for forming complex life from hydrogen and helium alone. 

That's probably true. :-)

>   Also even non-carbon-based life won't survive a collision with an
> enormous celestial body. 

I think if you had life on Jupiter, it could probably withstand quite a 
whack.  Not a star or a black hole, perhaps.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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