The life of a space plasma

Hi friends!

So after re-watching one of my favorites, Virus, I'm left with two more questions.

The Drej are pure energy!

1) Is there possibility for a sentient form of life to exist that has no physical body and is comprised of energy? This kind of fantastical life-form was the main antagonist in the movie and it is a reoccurring theme in a lot of sci-fi. Beings like these like to especially pop up in Star Trek and Stargate. 

and

2) Perhaps an easier question: what is the viability for robots to successfully utilize human or otherwise animal parts? I know we've been experimenting with different kinds of robotic prosthetic parts in people, can that same process be reversed for the monster in Virus or for the Borg in Star Trek?

But can robots do this?

We can do this

First I want to post about the first question, of energy based lifeforms, before I get into the real meat that is cyborg part replacements.

Plasma is what you see in lightning

  Energy based life-forms are a common alternative to crafting aliens with a creative physical appearance in science fiction for several reasons. Energy beings are generally god-like beings with a lot of impressive powers. In Star Trek, they often transport spaceships to other parts of the universe or have some kind of social experiment trial planned for the crew. In Stargate, the characters uncover secrets left behind by an ancient advanced race of beings that have conveniently transcended to a higher, energy plane of existence creating an ethical debate on the existence of an afterlife. 

Now for the science. There is some evidence to support the idea for inorganic material to behave life-like in the plasma state. When an element is subjected to extremely high temperatures it becomes a super-critical fluid also known as plasma, which has peculiar characteristics. Plasma is formed inside of stars and terrestrially as lightning among many other phenomena that are really common in space and a lot more common than the necessary environment for life as we know it. Laboratory experiments with plasma have yielded similar qualities to that of a single cell organism. Grains of dust can form a helical structure similar to DNA and an ionic bilayer is formed creating a closed membrane. Spheres of plasma can even duplicate themselves much like a cell would, by splitting in two.

Amoebas in Space! All  thanks to plasma.

Okay, so maybe tiny plasma 'cells' can be made in a lightning bolt on earth, but can they evolve into into lifeforms as complicated as the carbon based life that we know?  Some people theorize that there might be plasma organisms that are somewhat similar to the carbon based organisms we know of but we just can't detect them. This sounds a bit more on the fiction side, though.

From what it seems like to me and the lack of helpful evidence of a kind of sentient or otherwise intelligent life form based on plasma, plasma based life wouldn't be more complex than a simple bacteria floating through space without magical powers or abilities that are so depicted in science fiction. I would buy into the structure being a starter for carbon based life forms as Tsytovich speculates with his research, but not its own life highly evolved plasma life form.

-'Till science proves I'm wrong!

Artificial Intelligence and Robots!

Living robots would probably be friendly, right?

 Some scientists think that the most plausible form of silicon based life would begin with the creation of artificial intelligence and its control over manufacturing of other computers. This would allow machines to carryout organized life functions that would define it as being alive( the ability to react to surroundings, reproduction, metabolism etc.).

The idea of robots have been around for a long time, even long before the invention of computers. They can be friendly, loyal to a fault but they can also rebel and with enough of them, dominate humans. The unknown possibilities of A.I. create a lot of awe among people who are uncertain of new technology and is a great conflict-causing force for sci fi.

They are humanities greatest  companion for the future

Or its destroyers

 From what I know of biology, and as Ben Clark mentions above, if a A.I. were to be able to reproduce it would have to spread like any other organism. It would need to preserve its own survival and growth before it can start to be friendly towards humanity(unless of course they were still under our control). Unfortunately, the strain in resources would almost certainly lead to conflicts if they rebelled.

Are you serious? 

 The biggest problem with a machine take-over (and the scariest) is the sterilization of life forms to make room for an abiotic system of metabolizing resources. Since machines only need a supply of metallic compounds to make their parts, any stretch of land with useful resource production would get mined out and anything living there would probably be burned as fuel. We could hope that maybe they'd follow in the footsteps of The Matrix and keep us alive for the sake of getting electricity from our brains, but I don't think it'd take long for the A.I. machine overlord to realize that we aren't really the most energy efficient organism to sustain, even if they make us eat each other.

  The A.I. could try to be more cohesive to its biological environment and adapt biological systems for converting energy for use by eating stuff, or fix all their problems with a solar energy collection like photosynthesis, which would probably be the most effective.

uhhh?... what did  I drink last night?

  One of my favorite examples of a robot take-over is depicted in the film Virus(1999) starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland (and one of the Baldwins, I think). When a glob of cosmic radiation which is appears to be some kind of sentient alien is transmitted into a high-tech Russian robotics ship (for some reason they thought it would be smart to build robots in the middle of the ocean). In any case, the robots get the shock they needed to become  rebellious A.I machines and start killing everyone on board. The best part is that its found out that the robot overlord of the ship is actually using human parts to help make better robots, like Frankenstein versions of The Terminator. The only real plus to having human parts, other than to look like scary zombies, would be the extra supply of temporary building parts that might have better water resistance.    

Anyway, its on youtube if you wanted to check it out. Its definitely better than "Lifeform."

It is very reminiscent of the Borg from Star Trek, which I think will be the topic of my next post, robot and human hybrids. How compatible can biological tissue be integrated into a computer or robotic systems, how far away are we from bionic prosthetics?

-'Till then!    

  

Invader (part 2)

In my last post I wrote about one of my favorite movies as a kid, "Lifeform" (more widely called "Invader")and about how the creature in the movie was an organism based off of the element silicon instead of the carbon that is the primary building block of life here on earth. Here I will try to break it down the possibility of silicon life and how it fits in with the martian creature from the movie.

Silicon is a similar element to carbon, it is a metaloid (having both organic properties and metallic properties) element that has four valence electrons like carbon and can then form just as many molecular analogs as carbon.
 This idea has been present in science fiction since the early 1900's and is famous for creating aliens that look like big rocks, like the infamous Horta from Star Trek. This idea for the Silicon based alien is the more established form that people have thought it would take, because of silicon's use in building materials like clay and cement as well as its rock-like properties in nature.

 This is directly contradictory to the martian in "lifeform" as it is more fluid and animal-like when it chases its victims in the military base. This issue is addressed in an this Q & A done by NASA. This could be an indication of the progression of the new uses of silicon as a semi-conductor material in things like computers and electronics that are becoming more common and versatile now than in the time of Star Trek and are consequently being more common in science fiction.  

Another example is demonstrated in this BBC video about the possibility of Silicon based life.

As the video suggests, there is an issue of carbon "out-competing" silicon as the primary basis of life on the planet and it needed to be "locked away" and unable to be accessed. This is one of the main problems with  silicon based life becoming successful, there is more carbon in the universe and carbon is a lot more versatile at forming many different kinds of molecules. As it turns out in practice and in nature, silicon is a lot less stable building block for making large, complicated bio-molecules. Silicon just wouldn't ever get the chance to make great lifeforms with carbon around being all efficient with making great lifeforms.

This implication is answered for in the movie, where it is found that the martian only uses basic chemical reactions, one example being the digestion of gunpowder to react with sulfur in order to provide energy for a battery-like organ that stores it. Carbon based organisms store energy in lipids that have to be broken down in order to release the energy which is comparably more complicated than utilizing a battery. Instead of having a respiratory system that gives all the cells in your body energy, the martian from the movie likely uses a kind of circuitry system that doesn't require the ability to absorb oxygen through breathing.

There's a car battery in here someplace

Batteries and circuitry? This thing is starting to sound like a robot. With our technology creating smarter machines, it doesn't seem all that implausible that artificial intelligence is possible. If this martian creature can somehow evolve bio-electronic systems it might also be able to evolve a kind of AI brain.

How could an organism like this evolve? Silicon is the only known element besides carbon to create large enough molecules to support genetic material, so it could very well evolve through genetic offspring.While being an asexual creature would be a bonus in that it guarantees offspring, it doesn't provide a very easy way of genetic variability which is essential to evolution, unless it was possible to do both like an earthworm.

and that's my take on the martian guy from the obscure tv movie "Lifeform," it has reasonable plausibility provided that there isn't a lot of carbon around. If you're interested in learning more about some of the facts about silicon based life, here's my references.

The Encyclopedia of Science
 PNAS(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
NASA Astrobiology Institute

--'till next time y'all!

Intro and "Invader"

Intro

Greetings reader! Welcome to my first ever blog... ever! I am a biology student with a taste for all things horror or science fiction related. This blog is my attempt to bridge ideas behind science fiction and real biological sciences.

This topic is not uncommon, there are a few blogs on the same topic, such as this one and I am far from a biology or biochemical expert. My focus for this blog will then be to investigate questions or make comments that I have as a novice biologist on the movie or book piece that I like.

Genetic Engineering gone wrong in Leviathan (1989)

"Invader"

To begin with, I've decided to write about an older movie that I saw on the Sci Fi channel when  I was little that I loved. The film I mention is "Invader" (1997) aka "Lifeform" as it was named on tv. This goofy movie tries too hard to be flashy with scientific sounding terms terms like "exo-biological," but is a decent film if you're patient enough to see it through to the end.You can view the full movie here on hulu.com.

To summarize, A mars lander is rebuilt and sent back to earth with a stowaway on-board. The martian creature is hatched from an incubation chamber that was added onto the vehicle and runs amok in the military base that it was brought in to, China Lake. Eventually it is killed and the scientists dissect it.

 They discover that 1) it is a silicon based lifeform that functions based off of simple chemical reactions, 2) that it has a perfect genetic race memory and 3) that it asexually reproduces, which causes more problems when its offspring hatches and it becomes even more violent towards the human characters to avenge its parent.

I picked this movie because I felt it delved deeper (somewhat) and attempted to explain the biology behind the creature more with scientific inquiry and provides more than just, "somehow its able to do this," plot that happens a lot in other sci-fi movies. 
This no explanation kind of plot device is common in a lot of science fiction(Tremors, Alien etc.) so the attempt at explanation that occurs in this movie makes it seem a little more approachable with a biologist mentality.

The dialogue about the creature raises a several questions about silicon based life that I'll try to answer in the next posts with a little research and possibly make a profile of how that creature could evolve.

1) According to the film, the silicon based molecules of the alien wouldn't deteriorate like if it were carbon based, ensuring a kind of immortality and resistance to the harsh martian environment. This is a remarkable achievement for any life form, provided it's a plausible possibility, which is my question. Is it possible for a living organism to evolve based on silicon molecules? What are the problems with a silicon based organism?

and 2) how can the intelligence of the creature be constructed using only basic chemical reactions (assuming that by basic, they mean physical chemistry and not organic reactions)?

In the next post I'll attempt to explore the possibilities with you about silicon life, and how it applies to this movie.

-'til next time!
Andrew