DISTRICT 9
!!!THE SCIENCE MOMENT!!!

EUREKA!

SCIENCE MOMENT BY KELLY PARKS

I was going to take issue with human/alien sex (have you seen these aliens?) which simply makes no sense to me1. But I don't get foot fetishes either so whatever melts your butter.

I was also tempted to talk about the term "Alien DNA". Taken literally, this is contradictory. DNA is the genetic blueprint for every living thing on Earth because here on Earth as life evolved DNA was life's answer to a specific chemical problem.

There are, however, a great many possible chemical answers to that problem and the odds that alien life would also end up using Deoxyribonucleic Acid are very small2. However, I can accept the fact that the movie was using the term "DNA" in a generic sense as in "the alien equivalent of DNA", so I can let that go too.

It's the conversion process itself I'd like to call to your attention.

Wikus first notices what's happening to him at the site of an injury, which makes sense. If your genetic structure was being radically changed you'd notice it first where new cells were appearing. You also have to assume that the strange black fluid contains some advanced form of nanotechnology that carefully and intelligently plans his transformation. Otherwise he'd certainly have died. Kudos to the filmmakers for showing just enough tech to make this plausible but not so much as to give science geeks like me reasons to criticize the process.

SCIENCE MOMENT BY E.C. MCMULLEN JR.

1 FeoNote: Or for that matter, the sexual crush fetish, where no intercourse actually takes place between partners, but employs the stomping to death of insects or small animals by one person while another watches and pleasures themself.

Seriously!

WTF?

2 On the contrary, we know of no other atom in the periodic table which readily forms a stable bond with the widest variety of other atoms/elements as Carbon (C 6): Certainly not Silicon (Si 14). While Silicon forms almost as many bonds with other elements as Carbon, many aren't as stable, varied, strong, or as complex. We know of no situation where the much larger Silicon atom would form as many stable bonds as Carbon (say, in the presence of extreme heat or cold).

Because only Carbon is capable of forming the bonds with other elements that are necessary for life. Organic Life, is what we mean when we say a planet is either hospitable or inhospitable to "Life as we know it." We search for Earth-like planets. Not planets that are roughly the same size as ours (For example: Venus is roughly the same size as earth, but Hell No!), but those with an orbit roughly in the same "Goldilocks zone" aka Habitable zone. An area of space similar to ours (Just Right for life as we know it).

While other lifeforms in solar systems with other classes of stars may have building blocks of life entirely different than our own, Carbon based DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) and RNA (Ribonucleic acid) are, to the best of our observations and knowledge at this point, the most likely foundation for xenoforms. That is, the four sugars of all life, TAGC, are built from hydrocarbons (H 1) in a stable bond to carbon.

Carbon is about 18% of your body mass.

Want to know more about Carbon atoms?

Hell yeah you do!

LINKS

Why Is Life On Earth Carbon-Based?

Why Is Life Carbon-Based (And Not, Say, Silicon-Based)?

Why Is Carbon So Important In Biology? Key Element Of Life On Earth

Carbon as a building block of life | Properties of carbon | Biology | Khan Academy

This article copyright 2009 - 2024 by E.C.McMullen Jr.

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