"Why hasn't humanity still discovered extraterrestrial intelligence?" - this simple question has long been on the lips of every fan of the sci-fi genre. The physicist Enrico Fermi tried to answer this question, and it became known as the Fermi paradox. The idea is that, due to the huge variety of living forms on Earth, there should be an equally huge number of planets with advanced civilizations in the entire Universe. So why haven't we found anyone yet, or why haven't they found us? There are several theories on this score.
One of the reasons may be the death of civilizations. They could have been destroyed as a result of a nuclear war or natural disaster. The second reason is the relatively young intelligent life that arose in such a young solar system. So in 2010, the English astronomer Martin Rees suggested that extraterrestrial life may be so advanced that humanity is not at the level to detect it.
“Just as chimpanzees cannot understand quantum theory, there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capabilities of our brains,” said Martin Rees.
Professor and cosmologist Paul Davis is no stranger to unusual ideas. He believes that aliens may have visited Earth billions of years ago and left their mark on the DNA of some early life forms. In his opinion, traces of their presence can be found by studying the genomes of bacteria and other creatures.
One British astrobiologist suggested that the basic structure of all life might not be DNA or carbon, but information. After all, DNA is just a set of instructions for the body to function. And since the universe after the Big Bang developed on the basis of mathematically calculated laws, then mathematics should be considered the fundamental force of the universe itself.
Now the radical cosmologist is putting forward a new theory: the particles left behind by aliens can be woven into the fabric of our planet and even live inside the human body. Alien civilizations, quite possibly, could play with lives, just as chemists manipulate chemical compounds, and such extraterrestrial particles could be in our world. So, for example, there are some bacteria and organisms that behave completely differently than they should be, according to scientists.
Professor Davis calls it "quite reasonable" that such simple forms of life more than once appeared on the surface of our planet. So where could such an alien life be hiding? These can be bacteria that live inside poisonous lakes or in volcanic craters on the ocean floor. "They can be right under our noses or even in our nose," Davis said. Particles that are ten times smaller than bacteria cause kidney stones. Or maybe they are aliens too? Davis is sure of that. “It may turn out that extraterrestrial and terrestrial life are intermingled,” he says.
So why, with such an abundance of alien life among us, have we still not found it? The reason, Davis says, is because our monitoring methods are tailored to our biochemical understanding of life. And these organisms act in a completely different way. Recently, such microbes have already been discovered.
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Kenneth Nilsson of the University of Southern California has found a specific type of bacteria that feeds on electricity. Although they are not named an alien species, their properties differ from all "normal" bacteria that we know.
A similar species of microbes, now called geobacteria, was discovered by microbiologist Derek Lawley of the US Geological Survey. These microbes have already found their way into biological fuel cells and sewer cleaning, as they convert waste fluids into clean water and electricity.
Most biologists believe that life on Earth began with one particular event. But it is possible that there were much more such cases, and it arose several times. Therefore, Professor Davis calls for the organization of "missions on earth". It will be a systematic search for the strangest life forms in the strangest places around the world.
“If someone discovers a shadow of life or strange life, it will be the biggest sensation in biology since Darwin,” said Davis, who believes it will cost much less than finding life on Mars.
Even if such an alien life died, Davis says that it would definitely leave behind biomarkers. "If the alternative life had a completely different metabolism, then deposits of new rocks or minerals that cannot be explained by the activity of organisms known to us can certainly be discovered," he said.
The vast majority of life on Earth is made up of microbes. However, the genomes of many of them have never been analyzed. “We're surrounded by tiny germs that we know absolutely nothing about,” Davis said.
Voronina Svetlana