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Astrobiology (including recent related patents.)
Xenobiology(Redirected from Astrobiology) Xenobiology (or exobiology, or astrobiology) is the term for a speculative field within biology which considers the possible variety of extraterrestrial life. It also necessarily includes the concept of artificial life, since any life form that might naturally evolve elsewhere could conceivably be created in a laboratory using a future technology. It might be difficult to tell whether a truly strange life form had in fact arisen in space, or was designed much nearer to home. Although this is currently a speculative field, the absence of life in the rest of the Universe is a falsifiable hypothesis (though it is yet to be proven false), making Xenobiology a valid field for scientific enquiry. Likewise, computer simulations of basic life processes have made it possible to do exploratory engineering of alternate life forms (like left-handed DNA) to determine their characteristics. For these reasons the search for extraterrestrial life is of great relevance to xenobiologists. Some contend that the number of planets with intelligent extraterrestrial life can be estimated from the Drake equation if and when we ascertain the values of its variables. However uncertainties in the term of the equation make it impossible to predict whether life is rare or common. Another associated topic in xenobiology is the Fermi paradox, which suggests that if intelligent life is common in the universe then there should be obvious signs of it. There is no current evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life (as of 2004). However examination of meteors from Antarctica which are presumed to have originated from the planet Mars have provided what some scientists believe to be microfossils of extraterrestrial life, although that interpretation of the evidence is still controversial. Missions to other planets (such as Spirit and Opportunity to Mars, Cassini to Saturn's moon Titan, and a future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa hope to further explore the possibilities of life on other planets in our solar system.Xenobiology also figures in much science fiction as the fictional science of the biology of alien organisms. This use of the term demonstrates the speculative generation of possible models of such life, e.g. silicon-based. See also: General subfields within biology Anatomy | Botany | Ecology | Evolutionary biology | Genetics | Marine biology | Human biology | Cell biology | Microbiology | Molecular biology | Biochemistry | Origin of life | Paleontology | Physiology | Taxonomy | Xenobiology | Zoology | Bioinformatics This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World by Peter D. Ward The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World by Peter D. Ward Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology by David Darling The Life and Death of Planet Earth : How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World by Donald Brownlee Astrobiology, the Origin of Life, and the Death of Darwinism (2nd Edition) by Rhawn Joseph Astrobiology by Monica M. Grady Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology by David Darling The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology by Steven J. Dick Life in the Universe: An Assessment of U.S. and International Programs in Astrobiology by Nat'L Research Council Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life 21st Century Complete Guide to Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): NASA Spacecraft and Tele by World Spaceflight News Between Necessity and Probability: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life (Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics) by Radu Popa The New Science of Astrobiology: - From Genesis of the Living Cell to Evolution of Intelligent by Julian Chela-Flores An Introduction to Astrobiology by Iain Gilmour Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology: 20-22 July 1998, San Diego, California (Proceedings of Spie--The International Society for Op by Richard B. Hoover Astrobiology: Origins from the Big-Bang to Civilization by Iberoamerican School of Astrobiolog Recent Astrobiology related patents From USPTO: |