Alien Lifeforms May Be Inside Earth, By Steve Farrar, Science Correspondent,
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ALIEN LIFEFORMS MAY BE INSIDE EARTH
By Steve Farrar, Science Correspondent
Life forms so alien that scientists may simply not have recognised evidence of
their existence could inhabit the Earth, according to a leading scientist.
Dr Tom Gold, emeritus professor of astronomy at Cornell University in America,
believes that organisms based on silicon - completely unrelated to all the
carbon-based life man has encountered so far - may live at great depths.
In a forthcoming book he will suggest that scientists should take the
possibility more seriously. Gold, who is a member of the Royal Society,
previously predicted that vast amounts of more conventional bacteria live miles
down within the Earth's crust. Scientists initially dismissed the idea, but many
now agree with him.
"So long as nobody suspects there could be silicon-based life, we may just not
be clever enough to identify it," he said last week.
Rocks bearing signs of silicon-based organisms may already be sitting in
laboratories, he believes, with their significance overlooked.
Every known living organism, from bacteria to mankind, is based on the chemistry
of carbon, which forms the complex molecules such as DNA that are central to our
existence. Scientists believe that if extraterrestrial life is found, the
chances are that it, too, will be carbon-based.
Silicon has many chemical similarities to carbon, prompting scholars and science
fiction writers to dream up new life forms. Huge "space slugs" that can swallow
space ships appear in the film The Empire Strikes Back; in an episode of Star
Trek a rock-like alien attacked Captain Kirk's crew; and killer parasites based
on silicon surfaced in The X-Files when scientists explored the interior of a
volcano.
Gold's life forms, if they exist, would most likely be micro-organisms capable
of withstanding enormous pressures and temperatures, living in tiny pores inside
rock deep within the Earth's crust. They could draw energy from dissolved gases
and surrounding minerals.
Gold's ideas, which centre on an alternative explanation for oil and mineral
deposits, will be published in his book, The Deep Hot Biosphere, in January.
"It is speculative but logical that there could be a large bio-chemical system
very deep down which works better at high temperatures and pressures," he said.
Others are sceptical. Dr Harold Klein, who headed the Viking lander project team
that searched for signs of life on Mars in the 1970s, pointed out that silicon
was far inferior to carbon at forming the complex polymers crucial for life.
"I personally doubt the idea of silicon-based life. If we do find organisms far
down inside the Earth, I'd bet they'd be carbon-based," he said.
Nevertheless, he urges future missions to Mars to carry an instrument to test
for non-carbon-based organisms - just in case. It is possible that the chemistry
of silicon is altered sufficiently by the great temperatures and pressures deep
in the Earth to make it more suited to forming complex molecules, according to
David Noever, a research scientist at Nasa's new Astrobiology Institute.
He said some scientists at the American space agency were treating the idea of
silicon-based organisms seriously, particularly with a view to searching for
extraterrestrial life.
"It's almost naive to assume all life must be carbon-based; I could possibly
make good cases for life based on both silicon and phosphorus," he said.
Silicon is used by some carbon-based single-cell organisms called diatoms to
form protective shells, according to Dr David Williams, a diatom researcher at
the Natural History Museum in London. But diatoms are still fundamentally
carbon-based.
However, bizarre organisms have been found in recent years deep in the Earth's
crust. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, said:
"There's an unknown universe down there that has already produced organisms with
metabolisms so strange that, by comparison, man and mushrooms are almost
identical, so God knows what else they'll find."
Microbes have been found living on the ocean floor at depths and temperatures
where life was previously thought unsustainable.
Without knowing what silicon-based life forms might be like, said Dr Harry
Elderfield, an earth scientist at Cambridge University, it is almost impossible
to predict how scientists could even test for them.
Yet Gold has been described by Stephen Jay Gould, president of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, as one of the most iconoclastic
scientists - but one who is often right.
This information comes from the 22 November, 1998 issue of The Sunday Times.
(reprinted with permission)
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