Alien anatomy; amonia

Thomas_Anderson · Dec 11, 2008

All life on Earth is reliant on water, but I read a possible alternative for alien life on a planet with different conditions.

Since the scent of ammonia is bothersome to us water based lifeforms, would an amonia based be bothered by water vapor?

Also, seeing as how their whole anatomy is based off amonia could they guzzle down Windex as if it were a sport drink?

Stunted · Dec 11, 2008

Yeah, that all sounds plausible. Go for it!

waylander · Dec 12, 2008

I don't think this will work because of the basicity of ammonia

Liosse de Velishaf · Dec 12, 2008

Yeah, I'm not sure that ammonia is exactly the best candidate to use as a solvent. Also, we're actually carbon-based lifeforms. It's just that our processes function best in water. See, cause water is essentially neutral, so things can dissolve without interference.

JHillman · Dec 12, 2008

Ammonia?

Check the information on the biology of deep sea squids. They use an amonia based metabolism due to the deep sea pressures.

Jack

dclary · Dec 12, 2008

"Captain! Windexians off the starboard bow! And their plexisteel windows are streak-free!!!"

waylander · Dec 12, 2008

JHillman said:
Check the information on the biology of deep sea squids. They use an amonia based metabolism due to the deep sea pressures.

Jack

Still doesn't negate the essential basicity and nucleophilicity of ammonia.
Squid may have higher concentrations of ammonia within a water-based metabolism than other creatures but that is not an ammonia-based metabolism

Varthikes · Dec 12, 2008

dclary said:
"Captain! Windexians off the starboard bow! And their plexisteel windows are streak-free!!!"

Now, that would make an interesting Windex commercial. :ROFL:

GeorgeK · Dec 14, 2008

dclary said:
"Captain! Windexians off the starboard bow! And their plexisteel windows are streak-free!!!"

Looks like this is it boys, we're going to war."

"But this is a cargo ship, we are unarmed."

"Grab them six packs from the galley. Keep them shaken real good. Spray em with that and it will cut through them like acid. IF we manage to win and save one alive, I want to see your faces when we make him eat a salty cracker. And don't forget to get in your suits. You don't want to be breathing what they fart."

RainyDayNinja · Dec 15, 2008

Water vapor would likely be just as toxic to ammonia-based life as ammonia is to us. It would in fact be a very strong acid to them. As far as smell goes, depending on how their brains are wired, it could smell like anything; smell isn't an inherent property like color, but a subjective biological response. Also, I imagine Windex is a solution of ammonia in water, not to mention other additives such as fragrances, so I wouldn't recommend either of us drink it.

You might try the Wikipedia article on Alternative Biochemistries as a jumping off point.

Liosse de Velishaf · Dec 15, 2008

(Nevermind). There's nothing really wrong with using a different type of lifeform, but this one seems to be rather complicated. How plausible are you planning to have it be? How close to carbon-based life?

Thomas_Anderson · Dec 15, 2008

Given what I've looked up, they'd be dark skinned, and live on a planet further away from their sun that the Earth is, so it'd be colder. By colder, I was thinking 0-20 degress Farenheit, with something like 30 degrees feeling very hot to them. They'd need an environmental suit anytime they wanted be in the "standard" atmosphere where there's water vapor. Also, our foods are toxic to them and vice versa. As a tidbit, they have huge oceans of ammonia, and of course if a human or other water-based lifeform went into an atmosphere built for them, they'd need a suit, obviously. They look sort of like a "grey" alien, with some variations.

And yeah, I know we're carbon, but I couldn't think of the word for using water as a solvent. Also, my knowledge of biology and chemistry is limited, what's non-polar mean?

waylander · Dec 16, 2008

Liosse de Velishaf said:
I'm just curious, but isn't ammonia non-polar?

Er no.
Ammonia is highly polar

RainyDayNinja · Dec 16, 2008

Ammonia is polar, but its hydrogen bonding is a lot weaker than that of water, which is one of the problems of using it in life (for instance, the two halves of DNA are held together by hydrogen bonding). Also, it's likely that their atmosphere would have a higher pressure, to increase the temperature range over which Ammonia is liquid.

Thomas_Anderson - Why do you say they would be dark-skinned? And where did you look this stuff up? I've also been planning on working with an ammonia-solvent species.

Thomas_Anderson · Dec 16, 2008

I got it off this link: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/ammonialife.html

The dark skin is because of the high photosensitivity of the chemical compounds with ammonia, so the world would either need a very thick cloud layer, or the inhabitants would need darker skin.

Alien anatomy; amonia

Thomas_Anderson

Stunted

Ich heiße Superphantastisch!

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

Liosse de Velishaf

JHillman

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

Varthikes

Dragon Writer

GeorgeK

ever seeking

RainyDayNinja

Liosse de Velishaf

Thomas_Anderson

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

RainyDayNinja

Thomas_Anderson