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L I F EE V E R Y W H E R E
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
LIFE
E V E R Y W H E R E
D A V I DD A R L I N G
BASIC
E
Fax
Darling, David J.
Life everywhere : the maverick scienceof astrobiology / by David Darling.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-465-01 563-8 (alk. paper)
1.Exobiology.2.Life-Origin. I. Title.
01020304110987654321
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
2 Original Thoughts 15
3 Star Seed 33
4 Havens, Hells, and H,O 53
5 Strange New Worlds 73
6 Rare Earthsand Hidden Agendas 91
7 Theme andVariation 117
8 LifeSigns 145
9 The Cosmic Community 169
Notes 181
Index 20 1
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I’d like to thank Bill Frucht, senior editorat Basic Books, who played
an essential role in the genesis and development of this book. To him goes
credit for the original concept, much of the organization, and numerous
intelligent and insightful suggestions.
For providing me with information, opinions and advice, I’m grateful in
particular to: Gustaf Arrhenius, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Mark
Bedau,ReedCollege,Portland,Oregon;MaxBernstein,NASAAmes
Research Center; Jay Brandes, University of Texas at Austin; Simon Con-
way Morris, University of Cambridge; Alex Ellery, Queen Mary andWest-
field College, London; Clark Friend, Oxford Brookes University; Guillermo
Gonzalez, Universityof Washington; Joseph Kirschvinck, California Insti-
tute of Technology; Geoffrey Marcy, University of California, Berkeley;
Stephen Mojzsis, University of California, Los Angeles; Thomas Ray, Uni-
versity of Oklahoma; Gregory Schmidt, NASA Ames Research Center;
VictorTejfel, Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute; HojatollahVali, McGill Uni-
versity; and Peter Ward, University of Washington, Seattle.Any mistakes or
misinterpretations that mayhave crept into the text are, of course, my
responsibility alone.
As always, my agent Patricia van der Leun worked tirelessly behind the
scenes and provided supportabove and beyond the call of duty. Thankyou
again, Patricia.
Last, and mostof all, I thankmy family.Only through their support and
encouragement, over many years, have I been lucky enough to pursuea fan-
tasy career instead ofa “real job.”
ix
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PREFACE
Something extraordinary has happened over the past decade. Without any
fanfare, scientists the world over have reached a consensus on one of the
most profound questions ever to challenge the human mind: Are we alone?
In all of this vast and ancient cosmos, is life confined to Earth?
No. Almost beyond doubt, life exists elsewhere. Probably, in microbial
form at least, it is widespread. Andmore likely than not, we will find incon-
testable evidence of it quite soon-perhaps within the next ten to twenty
years. These are the core elements of the remarkablenew accord that is now
routinely accepted by researchers across a spectrumof disciplines.
Behind this surge in scientific optimism about the prospects for alien life
lies a rush of remarkable discoveries. A bewildering assortment of (mostly
microscopic) life-forms has been found thriving in what were once thought
to be uninhabitable regions of our planet. These hardy creatures have turned
up in deep, hot underground rocks, around scalding volcanic vents at the
bottom of the ocean,in the desiccated, super-cold Dry Valleys ofantarctica,
in places of high acid, alkaline, and saltcontent, and below many meters of
polar ice. T h e range of locales where organisms could be expected to survive
in the universe is thus vastly expanded. Some deep-dwelling, heat-loving
microbes, genetic studies suggest, are among the oldest species known, hint-
ing that not only can life thrive indefinitely in what appear tous totally alien
environments, it may actually originate in such places. If so-if the cradles
of biogenesis tend to be hot, dark, subsurface hells rather than ourfamiliar
sun-drenched surfaceedens-then thewidespreadappearance of life
throughout the cosmosis made much morelikely.
Scientific opinion has also shifted dramatically toward theview that life
may be “easy”-able to assemble itself from simpler components at the
slightest opportunity. Howelse to account for the signs in ancient rocks that
bacteria proliferated on Earth as long ago as 3.8 billion years, during the
intense bombardment phasefollowing the birthof our solar system? Terres-
trial life appeared almost before it had a reasonable chance of long-term
xi
xii rC Preface
*The study of life in the universe has been variously called exobiology (first by genet
cist Joshua Lederberg in 1960), bioastronomy (a more recent name), and astrobiology
(oldest of all, mentioned in Soviet literature as far back as 1953). These terms are still
used more or less interchangeably, but “astrobiology”is in the ascendancy thanks to its
recent adoptionby NASA.
Preface 0 xiii
for hiswork on hepatitis B) appointedas its headin 1999. They motivate the
University of Washington’s astrobiology program in Seattle, which wel-
comed its first intake of graduate students in 1999. They formed the topic
of the first annual conference devoted to the science of astrobiology, held at
NASA Ames in April 2000. “We are witnessing not just a shift in scientific
paradigm but, more important, a shift in cultural acceptability amongsci-
entists,” said extrasolar planet hunter Geoff Marcy. Poised on the brinkof a
momentous breakthrough that will change forever how humankind thinks
about itself and the universe around it, astrobiology is quickly coming of age.
Like all branches of science reaching toward maturity, astrobiology is
alive with diverse theories, experimental data, rumors and conjecture. These
are extraordinarily frenetic times, an immensely fertile period for thought.
T h e corridors outside conferencehalls are crowded with researchers in ani-
mated conversation, vying toget across their points ofview, forming camps
of opinion, pushingback the frontiersof knowledgeand surmisingwhat lies
out there.
At first glance, it may seem that apart from their broad agreement that
terrestrial life is not unique, those engagedin this new endeavor are morein
discord than harmony. Certainly there are many differences of opinion about
specific issues, from claims about Martian“fossils” to the stepsinvolved in
life’s genesis. That’s to be expected. Butit isn’t too early to make out, amid
the tumultof claims and counterclaims, the beginningsageneral of theory of
biology, a framework of concepts that underpins the development of life
wherever it takes place.
This book is a report from the frontlineof astrobiological research, an
examination of the issues, arguments and experimental results foremost in
the mindsof those who are spearheading this astonishing new field. Beyond
that, it is an attempt to see theway ahead, to identify the concepts that may
eventually unifyour understandingof life in a broader context.On what may
be the brinkof our first encounter with analien species, we ask: What prin-
ciples govern the emergence and evolution of life throughout the cosmos?
Where can we expect to find other living worlds, and what will we discover
on them?
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1
The I n t i m a t e M y s t e r y
Nothing could be more familiar than life. But what exactly is it? Ona practi-
cal level, how can we tell life from nonlife wherever it occursin the universe?
Defining life hasn’t traditionally been the biologist’s favorite pursuit.
T h e English geneticistJ. B. S. Haldane began his 1947 essay “What is Life?”
with the statement: “I am not going to answer this question.” Scientists
don’t need a dictionary tell to them that field
a of daffodils or acolony of bac-
teria is alive and atailor’s dummy isn’t. Biology hasgotten along quitenicely
without specifically saying what it’s studying. But astrobiologydoesn’t have
that luxury. How can we hope to find life on other worldsif we don’t know
what we’re looking for?
Maybe we’ll be lucky. When future probes melt their way through the
icy coating of Jupiter’s moon Europa, they may send back glimpses of giant
luminous creatures patrolling a Stygian sea. When the first manned expedi-
tion to Mars samples the of bedthe ancientocean that once sprawled across
the northern hemisphere, it may unearth the perfectly preserved fossil of a
Martian trilobite.T h e late Carl Saganwas among those who suggested that
something big might lumber before the watching cameras Viking
of on Mars
or float visibly in the cloud-tops of Jupiter as the Vqyager probes flewby.
Recognizing such large and obvious extraterrestrial life (or its remains)
would be child’s play. But the universeisn’t likely to be so accommodating.
Life may only rarely crop up on a grand scale. It could also be utterly bizarre,
unlike anything we’ve previously met or imagined. And even if it follows a
more familiar pattern, confirming its presence fromfar away will hinge on
our ability to distinguish, clearly and unambiguously, the true signaturesof
biological activity.
1
2 0 Life
Everywhere
SOwhat is life exactly? “Something that can make copies ofitself,” accord-
ing to a familiar textbook definition. That would certainly include every
organism on Earth. Evenin special cases, like those of mules,celibates, and
men whohave undergone vasectomies, wherethe individualcan’t or chooses
not to engage in procreation, the Xeroxingof DNA goes on all the time at
the cellularlevel.
For many scientists, however, while self-replication is a necessary feature
of living things, it isn’t the most fundamental. Stanley Miller, a biochemistat
the University of California, San Diego who did some of the pioneering
experiments on the chemical origin of life, makes no bones abouthis dislike
of definitions: “[They] arewhat you impose on your thoughts.There are so
many more important things to discover that to engage in an extended dis-
cussion over definitions, I think, is a waste of time.” Having said this, his
money is firmly on evolution as the sine qua non life. of “My definition of life,
viewed from the perspective oforigins, is that the originof life is the origin
of evolution.” Evolutionin turn involves three key factors: replication,selec-
tion, and mutation. “Replication is the hard part. Selection is where nature
selects out the ones that would replicate the fastest, and mutation means that
you make a small number of errors. It is important that those mutations, or
errors, be propagated on to the progeny, so the organism improves. Repro-
duction is simply making an accurate copy of genetic material.”
Another origin-of-life researcher,AntonioLazcano at theNational
Autonomous University of Mexico, holds a similar view: “Some people
would say that as long as you have a single moleculethat is able to replicate
and evolve, that is enough. Myown tendency is to definelife as a system that
is able to undergo Darwinian evolution.By this, I mean a chemical system
that can actually undergo a processof mutations and rearrangement of the
genetic material, and can adapt to the environment.” For Lazcano, as for
Miller, “the questionsof defininglife and the originsof life are connected.”
Mark Bedau, a philosopher of biology at Reed College in Portland, Ore-
gon, goes a step further. H e regards evolution as “the thing which explains
why all the other properties arethere-the essence, the root cause.” What’s
really alive is the whole system: an ensemble of countless individual organ-
isms of many species, all interacting, reproducing, and displaying unpre-
dictable, open-ended evolution.
This is an idea with far-reaching implications. If life can bercnything that
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