Why is liquid water what is "required" for life?

Is there no possibility of organisms living off of liquid methane? Silicates? Possibly living in the atmosphere of Gas Giants? Why not?

 

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I have not met you so perhaps there could be many different forms of life that could exist in the universe that we are not aware of just yet. I'd have to say that anything could be possible until it is proved otherwise.

 

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The distinction is between possibilities and probabilities. Water has remarkable properties as a solvent, over a wider range of temperatures than the few competing solvents. Combined with the diversity of hydrophobic and hydrophilic carbon chain polymers it is difficult to see how anything could approach the value of the combination. On a universal basis then one would tend to expect life to be based around the duality fof water and carbon.

However, we have not investigated other chemical systems to the same extent as that of carbon in an aqueous environment. Future research or interstellar exploration may reveal an as yet undreamed of chemistry that matches or even exceeds the efficacy of water/carbon. It;s just that at present that possibility seems to be very small.

 

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So, while we search for water-bearing planets, we could be overlooking entire civilizations? Neat!

 

Water is a requirement for life (as we know it).

 

Again, it is a question of probabilities. We spend the limited research dollars where they are most likely to generate a result.

 

All Earth life requires liquid water and there seems to be a good reason for it.
Even extraterrestrial life is very likely to require liquid water.

 

I wonder if they have considered how much liquid water is actually required. Will a droplet be enough? Or do we need to find an ocean? What if all liquid water is in the form of vapor?

 

Some have speculated that life arose in droplets (ie. vapour) that evaporated from the ocean, carrying with them a rich mix of prebiotic chemicals. Now you have a small package of chemicals, exposed to sunlight, with a naturally forming bi-lipid layer and dimensions which are very close to a prokaryote.

 

Why is liquid water what is "required" for life? and

the main\initial purpose is for lubrication. On its own first and as a base.

 

lubrication? In the event of temperatures where water is solid and you have, say , liquid qxygen, would this have the same effect?

 

My answer is for organic life. thoguht this was in human or earth science.

 

No. absolutely not. Please don't waffle about subjects of which you are ignorant. It is its power as a solvent and the wide range of temperatures over which it is liquid, not to mention its thermal conductivity and its remarkable properties of expansion close to freezing.

 

i really dont know, seems like he is referring to "space". Didnt you see my post above yours? I hope you dont disagree with that.

 

so, could there be microbes dormant in ice comets, which become 'active' when it nears the sun?

 

You have lost me completely. Whoa re you talk and about what?

 

This question should be moved to the Religion Forum, and to answer your question, the correct answer is "because God says so." As it is written, "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2)

 

OilIsMastery-fleh. They are not using the hubble telescope and others to try to,correct me if I am wrong,identify planets/bodies with liquid water based on a bible verse. Such pigheadedness irritates me about my fellow christians. The bible is not a textbook on anything but how god has related to man over the course of 3 or 4 thousand years. Any other attempted use of it is pure poo.

 

The four most common elements in living organisms are, in order, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, or CHON for short. They, along with helium and neon, are the six most common elements in the universe. This alone argues that life is most likely to be CHON-based.

There are many other arguments. One is water. Water is a nearly unique substance in that its solid form is less dense than its liquid form. That water freezes from the top down leads to temperature stability. Liquid nitrogen or liquid methane (two favorite alternatives to water used by science fiction authors) do not exhibit this behavior. Snowball Earth is a potential hazard of Earth being a watery planet. The snowball problem for other liquids is even greater because freezing would occur from the bottom-up.

Another argument is carbon. Silicon has somewhat similar chemistry. However, it doesn't form rings nearly so well as does carbon and the oxidation products of silicon are solid. The lack of silicon rings analogous to carbon rings alone is a killer. Silicon-based analogs to plant life would have to photosynthesize sand, and silicon-based analogs to animal life would have to poop out there exhaust.

That said, could life be based on some other chemicals? Could life be based on something other than chemicals? Creating new and exotic life forms is the lifeblood of science fiction authors. One interesting thing about science fiction authors: They extrapolate the science they like and ignore the science they don't like.

 

so-possible, not likely. CHON elements are what we're looking for. right?