‘Aliens’ Are Among Us

Forms of life different to our biochemical composition can exist anywhere among us – in toxic lakes or boiling sources.

Professor Paul Davies, a physicist at the Arizona University, voiced his belief at a science conference that our planet is the home of many “weird” forms of life that in effect have no connection with life as we know it, the BBC reported. 

These forms of life may be hidden in toxic arsenic lakes or boiling hydrothermal vents in the depths of the oceans, so the professor called on scientists to “a Mission to Earth” to investigate the hostile environments.

They may be in front of our noses or maybe in our noses

But “weird” forms of life can even exist among us, in a form that we have not recognised yet, professor Paul Davies says.

We know rocks do get traded between the two planets, and life could hitch a ride.

Professor Paul Davies

- We don't have to go to other planets to find weird life. It could be right in front of our noses or even in our noses. It is entirely reasonable to expect we will find a shadow biosphere here on Earth. But nobody has actually taken the trouble to look. The question is why? The cost is not expensive, it would be a fraction of the money we spend searching for extraterrestrial life – Davies says.

Davies is one of the advocates of the theory that life on Earth evolved more than once. The descendants of the second evolution could have survived in a shadow of a biosphere that we ourselves do not notice because its inhabitants have a different chemical composition than ours. All our microscopes are adjusted to see forms of life as we know them, so we have no possibility of recognising different biochemical compositions, he said.

Question: Are they from Earth or Mars? 

For example, most of the work done with phosphorus can also be done with arsenic which is poisonous for people, but it does have chemical characteristics that are favourable for the development of microbes.

The “Mission to Earth” would take two theories into consideration. One theory is that other forms of life exist in hostile environments, such as deserts, salt lakes, high pressure, high temperatures areas or areas with a high amount of radiation. On the other hand, various forms of life could exist all around us, blending in with forms of life that are based on carbon.

The problem in the “Mission to Earth” could be how to determine whether this life was created on Earth or on Mars.

- We know rocks do get traded between the two planets, and life could hitch a ride. Personally, I'm only interested in establishing whether life happened more than once. If we find it has happened twice from scratch then its going to have happened all around the universe – Davies said.