Scientists: Watch for Weird Life From Beyond

July 9, 2007 | Source: Space.com

Scientists in a National Academy of Sciences report committee worry that researchers have already limited their scope of thinking about where extraterrestrial life might be found.

The assumption that life requires water, for example, has limited the search for life on Mars to those “habitats” where liquid water is thought to be present or to have once flowed. But recent research suggests liquids such as ammonia or formamide could serve as an alternative to water for some alien organisms.