writes:
To me, the real question regarding alternative energy production systems is
whether any of them might produce a molecule of oxygen as waste, as
photosynthesis does. You get free O2 in the water, you've got the
possibility of large, robust organisms not unlike ourselves. Any other
energy system--while leading to interesting life, no question--is likely to
remain 100 % microbial, precluding bug-eyed mosterns in the Europan seas.
It disturbs me that the leading thinking is still that O2 is still thought to
be the only precursor to large life. I well remember how shocked everyone
was, when Archaea was discovered... 'non-photosynthetic life? Impossible!'.
Remember, that any Europan life forms have possibly had longer than 3 billion
years of uninterrupted development. That's a lot of time to 'get it right'
and come up with something workable, even in the absence of terrestial
goodies.
-- John Harlow Byrne
