NASA is saddled with the following definition of life: “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.” What abut a life form that has been in stasis for hundreds of millions of years?
Another question:
Lee Cronin, a chemist with the University of Glasgow and a LAB researcher, thinks it’s more than likely that the chemistry that led to the existing biology on Earth is no longer evident in the biochemistry we see. This means it may be impossible to reverse engineer what prebiotic chemistry on early Earth—or another planet—might have looked like solely from the life that’s present today. As a result, a biosignature based on Earth’s current biochemistry may not help us spot signs of developing life somewhere else.
Arlana Remmel, “What are chemical signs of life beyond Earth?” at Chemical and Engineering News
That’s the difference between law and history. History is messy and may be difficult to reconstruct.
But the researchers carry on:
“The chase is half the battle,” Malaska says. “If we did all of this and we found out that there are no other places in the solar system that has life, that would have very huge implications. We’d have to consider how absolutely lucky we are to have had this accident happen to us.”
Arlana Remmel, “What are chemical signs of life beyond Earth?” at Chemical and Engineering News
They’re still looking for that accidental fix. Amazing.
See also: New sky catalog reveals most likely sites for alien technology. “Exotica” lists phenomena for which conventional natural explanations don’t seem to work well. Advanced extraterrestrials might leave a “technosignature,” visible only as a strange phenomenon in space.