Ammonia-Based Lifeforms

Our search for extraterrestrial life assumes alien life based on water and carbon, but could there be biochemistries based on other substances?
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Credits:
Ammonia-Based Lifeforms
Episode 404, July 20, 2023
Written, Produced & Narrated by:
Isaac Arthur
Editors:
David McFarlane
Edward Wright
Joshua Deily
Lukas Konecny
Matthew C. Johnson
Graphics:
Kristijan Tavcar
Ken York (YD Visual)
Music Courtesy of:
Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com/creator
Markus Junnikkala, "We Roam the Stars"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Between the Rings"
Miguel Johnson, "Far From Home", "So Many Stars"
Aerium, "Fifth Star of Aldebaran"

[@filipe5722]

We really should start referring to the "habitable zone" as the "liquid water zone" and take the chance to also start talking about the locations of "liquid ammonia" and "liquid methane" zones.

[@vidyaishaya4839]

True, but first we have to find the first example of it. Fortunately, possibilities exist within our own solar system.

[@billlyell8322]

I disagree. The habital zone refers to the areas that we can exist in. You can explore deep oceams, but that is not a habital place with our current technology. The whole point of the habital zone to to find places that we, not some other creature, can survive.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

​@billlyell8322 uh. No. We can exist in the twilight zone of pretty much any star. By means of using rotating habitats and stellar light collectors. The intrest is in the question, what else might be living in that solar system and what critter could already be out there debating nuking us into oblivion or welcoming us in open arms.

[@billlyell8322]

@AnonymousAnarchist2 I find it hard to concern myself with what if, while our head politician takes bribes from foreign nations that wish to destroy us. Child mutilation is promoted that was deemed crimes against humanity in the 1930 and 40s. A terrorist is released by this nation to free a drug smuggler from justice in another nation, all in the name of progress. We have been trapped on this planet since the 1960s through government incompetence and corruption. Are you not weary of bread and circus yet? We had nuclear rockets built and tested in the 1960s. There is no e cause why we are not mining h3 from the moon right this second to power clean energy. We should at the very least, have outposts on both Mars and Venus by now. What have we done instead? Wasted billions in low earth orbit that doesn't even provide any production that can help people. That is REAL progress. Growth. You want to expand science and knowledge, you go there... you do things... you learn what is... not what if.

[@BananaRamaPartyTimeAllTheTime]

​@billlyell8322 I get what you mean, but the habital zone is vague it's based on scientific study, so far as we have looked we are the only example and our planet is the only test subject to compare too, so that's a good place to start for sure we are proof it's possible and there is proof no other place so far is because they are not in perfect conditions. Smart to look for places you know many multi cellular life co exists, not just us, leaving us knowledge all these un related life forms all seem to have needed this perfect zone. Doesn't mean it can't be on a hell planet but in biology process just cannot happen without certain environmental conditions.

[@JKa244]

Honestly, anywhere a solvent exists and persists naturally has the potential for really complex chemistry.

[@turkeyboyjh1]

I wanna live on the ethanol planet 😂😂

[@JKa244]

@@turkeyboyjh1 Maybe cellular life on such a planet has dual-wall fatty acid cellular membranes... But inverted :) Tails out! Also, such a planet almost certainly exists, alcohols are very common even in nebulae

[@rascalc3337]

@@JKa244 Hmm... Interesting!

[@haroldsaxon1075]

So, what kind of chemistry could fuel life in those environments? Maybe there's some things similar to our own oxygenation event that we could look for signs of.

[@JKa244]

@@haroldsaxon1075 I really don't know - there are so many different permutations of different possible solvents, temperature ranges, dissolved chemicals, etc.... Probably the easiest way to find out would be to simulate such environmental conditions and see what happens!

[@francoislacombe9071]

Since ammonia ice sinks in liquid ammonia, the temperature range in which ammonia oceans would be stable is rather narrow. Planets with such oceans could not be allowed to enter a "snowball" phase, because they would never be able to come out of it.

[@vanya3935]

My thoughts as well. It is one of the miracles of water that keeps us from freezing over, but also bursts our pipes.

[@technic1285]

Could you explain why not? Is there something about ice sinking that prevents it from melting? Like from the higher density of the deep ocean?

[@rico9163]

@@technic1285Since the ice is denser than the liquid, it won't form a sheet on the top of the body, but instead large bodies of liquid ammonia would start to freeze from the bottom up, where they would never melt due to the lower temperatures and lack of sunlight. You'd be left with a shallow puddle of ammonia on top of huge glaciers of it

[@M.O.Valent]

Thus, subsurface ammonia oceans are not able to exist, so while even the remotest icy moon has a small chance of hosting life beneath the ice while the surface is a hostile to life as it can get. In ammonia ice worlds, the surface is the only place where life would be guaranteed to be found, very exposed to the dangers of space, unless the planet has considerable reservoirs of water, in which case there would always be two biotas competing.

[@michaeledwards2251]

Red dwarf stars would transition much more slowly than Sol, some 25% to 35% radiance change, equivalent to a nearly 10% change in temperature, over 4.5 billion years. Temperature transitions 100X slower would be possible.

[@navyactor]

better not see anyone in these comments making fun of this guys voice

[@theoriginaldrdust]

dont click sort by new

[@EXOBLANET]

Hahaha hahaha n

[@oogaboogabe3464]

Meanwhile on an ammonia planet: "could water serve as a basis for life?"

[@EXOBLANET]

"Well since we are allergic to water it would be a no ... or is it?"

[@Lady_Flashheart40]

Next video: Porridge-based lifeforms in the Goldilocks Zone.

[@fatesend8637]

I love speculation about alternative chemistry life. The chemistry section also makes me wonder if methane would be another possible water based substitute. Titan, which you mentioned, has lakes of liquid methane... and ethane. That's probably a place to look.

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

An important detail about an ideal life solvent: it needs to be able to dissolve many kinds of molecules, but also allow or even facilitate chemical reactions during the dissolved state. It cannot be too harsh, but it cannot be too gentle either. Methane is far too weak a solvent for life, however it can be used as a nutrient or building block for chemistry happening in a stronger solvent such as ammonia.

[@fatesend8637]

@@RandomGuy-qg9xf We don't actually know that. What you said is speculation, too.

[@logicbuilder1204]

@@RandomGuy-qg9xf I'm replying to see what happens in this conversation in the future, please ignore me.

[@fatesend8637]

@@RandomGuy-qg9xf Eh. I've heard conflicting arguments on both sides of this. The facts are that we have only discovered one life bearing world, Earth. That's it. We can't even agree on a singular origin method for just Earth's life. We don't really know the minimum requirements for life or how likely that is to occur naturally elsewhere. We do know about how common specific elements are and their properties. However, we don't know as much about what conditions can or cannot for certain bear life. We can speculate based on our knowledge of chemistry, but this is just speculation. As far as Silicon goes, I never mentioned it. It should be noted that carbon based life is not just carbon as a pure element. It's carbon molecules, which means it is mixed with other elements. While my personal opinion is that silicon based life seems unlikely, you wouldn't get it out of pure silicon.

[@murunbuchstanzangur]

​@RandomGuy-qg9xf while I agree its extremely unlikely, you can't prove a negative statement like that easily at all. And human science certainly hasn't proven that. While I don't think it's something we should spend a penny finding out, it's still theoretically possible.

[@dr.danzigm.d.6845]

Can you make a video showing how aliens could make crystal meth from simple household chemicals if they lived on an Earth-like planet? Asking for a friend

[@chrisgerman1000]

Someone answer this

[@FarremShamist]

One of the interesting things about Ammonia-based lifeforms is that, were they advanced enough, would have an extremely easy time going to other planets and surviving on them due to the fact they could just actually enter cryogenics to hibernate for that time. This is depending on whether their bodies can manage to avoid decay and other issues within this period.

[@concept5631]

Interesting

[@descuddlebat]

Alternate chemistry life / wildly different environment inhabiting life gotta be one of my favorite topics

[@user-qf6yt3id3w]

It could be that there are loads of different forms of life - different solvents, different oxidizers, different polymers to store information and act as enzymes. Or it could be that DNA based life with oxygen as the oxidizer and water as the solvent is basically universal and seeded Earth via panspermia. We can see hints of this because it seems like unicellular organisms developed rather quickly after the late heavy bombardment era and that many bacteria could survive in space. Or even that if you spread it over the galaxy you'd find a lot of DNA/O2/H2O based life and maybe a couple of outlier planets where life used ammonia as a solvent or chlorine as an oxidizer. Then again maybe most neutron stars or even most normal stars have life based on radically different principles and it turns out that is much more common than all the planet based life, rather like how dark matter is much more common than what we consider 'normal' matter. Maybe we can't tell without going out there but I do think theorizing and then looking for evidence from astronomy might find something really interesting.

[@DeltaVTX]

Drink? Check. Snack? Check. LAUNCH!!!

[@rachel_rexxx]

I personally love the "Gather round, nerds, it's storytime!" vibes he brings

[@rolnokay5057]

Im gonna have too watch this 3 times. I only ever thought about Silicon

[@Texasplit]

Sea salt and vinegar chips brother!

[@playboicarti9157]

Lotion🧴? Check.

[@richardhighsmith]

What would an ammonia based life form snack on? A few chilled long chain hydrocarbons floating in alcohols? Maybe it would get drunk when consuming a small amount of water.

[@wolfpackastrobiology3690]

Great video but I would like to point out one thing. With the boiling point of ammonia being ~-33C many have argued that it is too cold to support pre-biotic chemistry. However, at pressures ~100 times that of Earth at sea level, ammonia has a boiling point close to water. So a segment about how life could appear and evolve on a planet with similar temperatures to Earth yet surface pressures similar to Venus would be interesting.

[@UpliftedCapybara]

Another great video for worldbuilding! You don’t do too many colabs, but Biblaridion or Artefexian would both be good choices when you do more on topics relating to worldbuilding in general or speculative biology.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I remember chatting with artefexian a couple times back before the show when he'd also just done a couple vids, wow that seems like an eternity ago. :)

[@DFX2KX]

And beaten to this comment I see. Seeing Issac's take on a hypothetical timeline of a non-carbon-water world would be fascinating.

[@morgan0]

would be cool to have a collab spec evo series about an ammonia world (maybe with some water) and come up with some reasonable guesses at like, reduced metabolic speeds, different challenges for life, etc, and play out evolution for a while

[@d1g1beastpr1me7]

I would pay good money to see a spec project from Isaac

[@asimovstarling8806]

For me an Ammonia based planet would be ideal as a tourist destination. Cold enough to deter unwanted visitors, hostile enough to always have something to do, and plenty of experiments to perform. Including interesting chemistry.

[@lutze5086]

Would the inverse then be true also

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

And if there are any ammonia based life forms you could go around altruistically peeing in their mouths to keep yourself mildly amused.

[@KangwithoutaKangdom]

​@@attemptedunkindness3632🤣

[@oppenheimjm]

You just managed to compress at least 5 doctorate level degrees into half an hour: Physics, Biology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Ecology, and I am sure, more I cannot even comprehend. Incredible video!

[@thezipcreator]

not really? I mean the video discusses aspects of all 5 of those but like... it's not like they're talking about the whole of those topics in 30 minutes lol

[@sakurarara4725]

​@@thezipcreatordo you understand how not to take things literally

[@thezipcreator]

@@sakurarara4725 idk I just kind of hate it when people like aggrandize videos way above what they actually are. this video is good, sure, but this comment''s like blowing it out of proportion. idk maybe you're right but it just annoys me personally.

[@WolfeSaber9933]

Given how extreme life has gotten on Earth, like living inside of an active, underwater volcano, life could just pop up anywhere in the universe where we least expect it.

[@bearlytamedmodels]

@@Smp_lifting You're probably right, and that is something a lot of people need to keep in mind when talking about finding [extremophile] life elsewhere in the universe, but keep in mind also that while we have some good ideas of where life came from, we don't actually *know* where and how life arose on Earth, and we certainly don't know the outer bounds on the conditions allowed for life arising. Life may have needed X Y and Z on Earth to arise, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have arisen under completely different A B and C conditions elsewhere.

[@Mark-sl4bw]

​@@Smp_lifting It's worth remembering that life on Earth likely began around hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.

[@Gala-yp8nx]

This is the most likely scenario.

[@vidyaishaya4839]

Life development, and sufficient biomass for evolution to occur are very different situations. Finding examples of extreme life in unusual places, and complex organisms in enough quantity to evolve are very different situations.

[@Oscar-ek2jx]

In reality thats one of the best places life can be lmao

[@DrifterOSullivan]

We limit our search for life to carbon-based life forms, just as we believe life can exist only on planets similar to our own. There are organisms that live -and thrive-in habitats that were once considered uninhabitable: tubeworms live on hydrothermal vents and have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that enables chemosynthesis. Look at tardigrades! I wonder if we've overlooked possibilities simply because we can't recognize them

[@ritamnag6238]

Hello Mr. Arthur. Just wanted to say, big fan. I really enjoy calculus, physics, and in sci-fi I'm addicted to space opera along the lines of A. Reynolds and Iain Banks, and your beautiful videos really scratch my itch. I'm soon to become an engineering undergrad, and I hope someday one of my projects becomes (if only in a tiny tinyyy sens) a forefather to some million-years-in-the-future cosmic megastructure. Cheers, and praise to Asimov.

[@tribalismblindsthembutnoty124]

Electron availability in deep space is measured in e/m2. You will be there. It will be more like a sub than you think. The moments where it is interesting, beautiful or heartbreaking will be the breaks in the massive monotony. But do not miss your chance. Take that elevator, step through that door, say yes when they ask you.

[@allisonkapashesit]

😊 I'm❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@astralastra1758]

virgin

[@toetoucher4070]

@@DonaldCrapsackhow the hell can you just have a penis pfp on KZbin 💀

[@NealBones]

Fascinating stuff, man! I've been speculating on ideas like this one for a while, but this is so much more in-depth than any of mine! Awesome work 😁

[@ArtnCharc]

I ALWAYS LIKED THIS GUYS VOICE! I found him after reading ringworld and have been a fan ever since.

[@plozar]

What would we get if an ammonia world collided with a Clorox world.

[@rudyrobles8294]

When I used to be an analyst in a lab, if you showed up to work looking tired the team leader would walk up behind you and put a bottle of ammonia under your nose (followed by roars of laughter). That will wake you up in the morning! Nowadays it would probably be a lawsuit.

[@shamusfarmer]

I love these... The futurism is great, but I love the speculative xenobiology stuff the most. Haven't you run out of mega structures yet? More of this, please!!

[@tribalismblindsthembutnoty124]

yes! these are the episodes I never miss!

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

Your work is appreciated as it inspires people like myself to think outside their normal dreary day to day life. I for one want to thank you for the time you invest into these videos.

[@cleanerben9636]

Personally I think gas giants are overlooked for life. They can and do have hotter high-pressure layers that may contain the right chemistry for life.

[@kidoliva]

They are also a lot more violent

[@afafaa3302]

Quoted from a video "sir, there is a gas giant ahead of us!" "Land on it!" "How sir?" "Very carefully."

[@kidoliva]

Sounds like Futurama @@afafaa3302

[@ashphuck2202]

You have the same speech impediment that I used to have 🥰 Getting my tongue to make that pirate, "ARRR" sound was SO FECKING HARD! I dont know if it would help but I overcame my struggle with saying rounded "R"s by beginning to go "GRRRR" like a dog would growl and then I would play around with moving my tongue in different ways while growling to connect the sounds I made with how it felt to make them. Eventually, I made the strong "R" sound and worked out how my mouth felt while doing it. For example, at (16:01) you pronounce, "water" VERY well. If you could managed to figure out what position your tongue muscles were in when you made that Pirate "ARR" sound you could begin to practice getting your tongue into that placement with increasing ease until the point at which it begins to happen naturally.

[@Chaoticy]

Incredible video, thank you for presenting this in such a beautiful way my friend.

[@bigsciguy2004]

Did we just get an Isaac appearance at the end? I am ENTHUSED

[@LaSenoritaLadrillos]

Omg !!!

[@walnutcloud]

i enjoy these videos alot, and ive been watching them since i was a kid

[@walnutcloud]

since i was like 10 or 11

[@fishsmell3939]

Disgusting

[@dudeist_priest]

I live in fear every day that the coffee-based life forms will find us.

[@nathanwhitechurch3769]

Thank you for all the videos!!

[@comentedonakeyboard]

And somewhere on a Amonia rich world, an Amonia based Isaac Arthur, might upload a Video about the feasibility of hypothetical water world Lifeforms.

[@HienNguyenHMN]

If liquid ammonia can dissolve water-ice, then maybe developing lifeforms wouldn't need the "floating ice" buffer that water provides. I'm imagining some lifeforms adapting by burrowing into to ammonia-water-ice at the bottom of ammonia lakes.

[@hazzah5572]

Oh man I love watching fresh isaac arthur videos.

[@cannonfodder4376]

Another informative video as always Isaac.

[@jaysontadlock1871]

i Can’t not hear waddle when he attempts to say water.

[@sixtenwidlund4258]

It’s Arthur’s day!🎉

[@Pygmygerbil88]

Insects have different blood than mammals and instead of hemoglobin(iron based) insects have cupper based blood(hemocyanine) so maybe other forms of blood are possible in other planets.

[@samyamamoto6613]

Happy Isaac. Arthur day!!!

[@JonahRoyes]

Ahh Yes nothing like a Isaac Arthur video with a joint and a burbon😅... Keep it up Mr. Arthur I appreciate your dedication to quality content ❤🙏🏻

[@netherportals]

This 30$ tablet I got has an invert mode so I've been watching on invert, you might enjoy the visuals like that on occasion when choomed.

[@vidyaishaya4839]

That's a new twist on "a drink and a snack!"

[@Pamtorres2003]

While everyone wondered about whether aliens would look like us or not. I've always wondered if we would be the same size. I mean, what if aliens were 50 ft tall, or even 6 inches tall? Would we automatically assume the 6" alien to be mentally inferior. Or would we be so frightened by a bunch of 50' alien? All shows I see depicting aliens, they are roughly the same size as use, with similar physical attributes, like speaking through a mouth, and can see and hear, like we do. Very egotistical of us, I'd say.

[@AlexArthur94]

Agreed. I'm very annoyed by the humanoid alien trope. If we're talking about Earth-like life, I think there would be a somewhat limited size range. If the organism was too small, it probably wouldn't have a complex enough brain. That said, I think it might even be able to be the size of a medium bird or something, so it's possible it could be quite a bit smaller than us. Of course, that's speculation, though. Also, being able to produce fire would be pretty difficult without sufficient size and strength, but then again, it might be a challenge we could've solved eventually even if we were a lot smaller. Fire is really important for an advanced life form because you also need it to be able to work with metals, which are needed for more advanced technology, and for a lot of other things. As for a larger end, an advanced extraterrestrial may be able to be a lot larger than we are, possibly only be limited in size by its planet's gravity and the ability of the ecosystem to support it, etc. On the other hand, space exploration would get more challenging the bigger an organism got, because particularly getting from the ground to space means you have to deal with a lot of material strength constraints. On the other hand, if the planet had much lower gravity, that could reduce the difficulty of some of those challenges. If we're talking about advanced life forms that aren't based on water or carbon, then I have no idea. LOL

[@riibuns]

your voice is really nice to listen to. excellent video as well ! great job ❤

[@GazBC4U]

Thanks for the video bro, that was really interesting.

[@ilmariforsnas]

Thank you for the interesting video. Indeed I find it difficult to believe the only way(s) life could exists is how it exists in earth. I believe more that there is an universe full of life. A book I really like on this is Life in the Universe by MV Summers.

[@johnchapman5125]

Thanks for sharing!

[@alwalw9237]

I second that. I had a romantic, wishful thinking type of approach to life in the universe prior to reading his work. I now feel far more empowered knowing humanity is a race full of potential and promise, even though our future will be very difficult.

[@charlesmcclure8000]

I watch a lot of space stuff. A lot of the time I am just reinforcing prior knowledge. But your video was super informative. I learned new things and that's a pretty cool feeling. Great job sir, you have earned my sub and my respect

[@moki1416]

Nice video! I didn't expect Dr. Light to tell me about the cosmos!

[@mypseu]

Just finished reading Project Hail Mary yesterday, this is great timing.

[@Eldagusto]

Seeing baby army Isaac was a pleasant surprise with this episode! I learned about ammonia life dynamics and got more Isaac lore!

[@reptilian_geneticist]

Even as a kid I used to think "why does life have to be carbon based or need water? Maybe alien life doesn't."

[@icecold9511]

But it does have to obey chemistry and laws of physics

[@Raspse7en]

I sorta always question that. Of course, my version is, why does all life gotta match up to Earth's standard? If you look at the grand scale of things, especially with how big and vast the universe is, it makes you question that notion. I think the reason why we based ideas and theories on potential alien life on Earth's standard of life is because so far, that's all we know. We don't know or have discovered any other potential forms of life other than the ones we already found on Earth.

[@nunyabidness3429]

@@icecold9511 until it doesn't and changes our misunderstandings of these "laws" we base only on our own understanding which is always evolving!

[@fostermoody]

I cant help but picture a xenotube video on a planet with an ammonia based biosphere talking about how life might be possible on planets with liquid water, and how the poisonous flammable chemical oxygen would make up a large percentage of the atmosphere, causing life to be slowly burned on a cellular level by the gas it uses for respiration.

[@fostermoody]

"Life on such oxygen rich watery worlds could be possible, but unlikely, and would be very simple and delicate, not able to exist if the temperatures ever dropped below freezing. The expansion of water ice would severely damage the creature meaning frozen hibernation wouldn't be possible."

[@markofdistinction6094]

At the temperature of liquid ammonia, carbon based chemical reactions slow down so much that carbon based life may not be possible.

[@Castle3179]

At higher pressure, ammonia can remain liquid at higher temperatures.

[@dimitrioskaragiannis1169]

Another amazing video🎉.please continue the great work Isaac 😊 👍 Your channel is a" ship" where we travel throughout the edges of human imagination in the infinite possibilities of the universe 💫

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@scrambo6182]

FUNDAMENTALS OF LIFE!! Yes!! Please do an episode on Bioremediation and other applications of biotechnology BEYOND medical biotechnology!

[@jasonnugent963]

There should be a T-shirt,.. "Before you explore the Universe,. grab a Drink and a Snack" (maybe various designs,.. 1 can be an Astronaut or space-station,. 1 could be an Alien with an alien-cup and alien-snack,. etc). Great to see you in person in the video, Isaac !... long time listener and love putting your episodes on while I do other things. I just moved into a new Apartment and finally get to buy my own furniture and big TV,.. I can't wait to stream your videos on a big TV !...

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I need to steal that line :) I actually only have seen my episodes a couple times on fullscreen and a big HD screen at that, I don't really watch them too often, I get a little shocked how nice they look when I do. Enjoy the new apartment!

[@desheayjenkins9298]

Your narration voice is especially wholesome, love it! Thank you for putting this video together! Fantastic editing, very interesting content, and cool concept!

[@netherportals]

My prof used to say we were worth 1.34$ if you took all the base elements people were made of and sold them. Thanks prof, 1000$ well spent to hear I'm worth 1.34$

[@myco2408]

Love you Isaac, hope you’re well :)

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Great video, Issac...👍

[@Chewedbacca]

Not to diminish the content or the effort that went in into this video, and no offense to the creator, but it's so funny to hear someone knowledgeable explaining actual scientific facts with a grown ass man narrator voice and that speech impediment. I'd imagine he did the jutsus and the Naruto run all throughout highschool to the very bitter end

[@amp4105]

yeah he probably was bullied, is that funny to you?

[@BerserkRaven]

We all love the univorse

[@csar07.]

😂 lowe it man, he probably has a speech impediment

[@bluekoi455]

Good stuff as always!

[@jaredleemease]

Thank you Isaac.

[@JRassi_Militaria]

Wouldn't 'ammonia based' life forms just be Nitrogen based? Confusing title if it's the 'solvent' and not the actual building block. Due to valence electrons and the kinds of bonds needed to form the complex molecules needed for life, the only viable options are carbon, sulfur, silicon, and germanium... sulfer has fewer bonding oportunities and germanium is simply too rare to be statistically viable.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Kinda but I wanted to emphasize it was the alternative solvent, like water, not specifically a carbon alternative like silicon

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

Episode 404 - Ammonia-Based Lifeforms... no "404, ammonia life not found" jokes, Dough I just made one, lol.

[@minddrug709]

I believe the purpose that the universe has many elements with different properties is to precisely allow all kinds of lifeforms to be created and adapted to fit the endless variety of environments.

[@mattbrouse692]

I really like your voice it's so relaxing ❤

[@garyisfat]

bro this has so much talent and quality to it you need to get someone read these scripts for you i legit couldnt understand half of what you were saying

[@grahamnombit3024]

You should also look at hydrogen fluoride as an other water substitute

[@purplejack2020]

I like to think that somewhere out there in the universe there's an alien WeTuber making a video about how water-based carbon life might be possible

[@icecold9511]

As he said though, the energy state would be low. The math says we blow right oast them in development

[@roberthofmann8403]

Great topic. Silicon next! I ❤️ the Horta!

[@jamescheddar4896]

amino acids survive in sulfuric acid making that a possible solvent too. there's a hole in our knowledge about if there's some strong nuclear force action or something going on that turns amino acids into protobionts. I tend to think its the unique properties of carbon causing the nuclear bonds to pass through the molecules or something, so any stable fluid environment could make something

[@lonjohnson5161]

The 5 categories could be an episode on its own. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a few minutes on each subcategory. Heck, you could have a second episode which heavily relies on the deep dive in the first to take a closer look at certain parts of the Drake equation and discuss the Fermi Paradox implications. You could even go for a third episode where you explore an O'Neal Cylinder and the challenges in making an artificial ecosystem. I'd be willing to bet that this only scratches the surface of what can be done with the 5 categories.

[@thepeff]

Bear in mind that the Goldilocks Zone is distinct from the Boyz II Men Zone which is instead not too hard, not too soft

[@KangwithoutaKangdom]

😂

[@Inertia888]

Off-topic, but after all the rain we have seen in New England lately, summer of 2023, I have had the pleasure of seeing many more toadstools, than usual, popping up out of the ground. These are my favorite mushroom, as they are so pretty. Photo reminded me of this, if you are a toadstool lover, you will have noticed this too! I am hoping that when the sun has had a chance to shine for a little while, we'll also get to catch a glimpse of some lady-slippers.

[@Lady_Flashheart40]

I just wish all of this rain we've been getting wasn't detrimental to our garden. The marigolds are doing well, but my impatiens, daisies and herbs are struggling with oversaturation.

[@Inertia888]

@@Lady_Flashheart40 Same. My mother's garden is struggling too. I will try to help prepare her garden for the best drainage possible for next year's season, but I'm not even sure how to go about that with an outdoor garden, when there is this much rain. Maybe we'll try raised beds, with layers of stone and perlite, or some mix. Going to be studying the subject this winter, for sure.

[@GhastlyH]

Hmmm... water worlds, ammonia worlds, liquid helium and liquid hydrogen worlds and the most intriguing of all coffee worlds. I wonder what life would be like on a coffee world. Probably very productive.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Tonight's NSS Townhall Registration & Q&A Submission: space.nss.org/nss-town-hall-july-20-with-nss-senior-leadership/ If I didn't mention, it's free to attend even if you aren't a member. :) Also free: a bag of fresh coffee with any Trade subscription at www.drinktrade.com/isaacarthur Also-also: Mistake at 7:15, I say ammonia has a density of "0.73 kilograms per cubic meter." That's it's specific gravity, 0.73, same for the others I mention. Density is 0.73 tonnes per m3, or 730 kilograms per m3.

[@EliasMheart]

Ah, sadly that is 3am for me xD But enjoy! Still amazed and happy that you became president :D

[@cmelton6796]

I'm gonna go ahead and call the habitable zone for ammonia-based life the "Ammonialocks Zone"

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

@@cmelton6796 nice one :)

[@Breamin]

Could you do an episode about intergalactic government or societies. A take on what possible federations or empires that could exist.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

@@Breamin YEs, though suspect I've done one or two before too :)

[@Compl.y]

He’s widdoly hitting the griddy

[@alexonthefly5861]

I am not commander Shepard and this is my favorite podcast in this galaxy

[@safehavenonice6431]

Been world building some ammonia critters for ages. This oughta be a good video.

[@samfarrelly4766]

Omg when he says "equiwibwium" I can't 💀💀💀

[@Adonisius_Kavata]

man has a serious lisp

[@tau6103]

“Wadow” 😂😂😂

[@Space_Pilgrim]

You should do a video on the mosul orb and tic tac UAP. All the knowledge you have on material science and chemistry would probably lead to some interesting hypothesis as to their structure.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

The Mosul orb is a static object filmed as a drone flies over it at speed.

[@Kopernicus67]

Difficult for ammonia based life. For most metabolism, the transfer of proton is a key process. The acids involved are hydronium (pKA -1.7) and water pKA 15. For ammonia, the range is much, much greater, and a larger thermodynamic 'hole' with ammonium at pKA around 10, and ammonia at pKA = 35!.

[@Eli-akad]

As a kid I always thought it absurd how certain planets were deemed impossible of having any type of life. But these hypotheses were always based on life on Earth. I always thought of the possibility of life existing in other forms, or even there being life that can survive in super extreme environments. Like a more advance version of animals seen in the oceans. I was especially disillusioned because around the time a new planet was discovered that was far larger than what was previously thought to be “scientifically possible”. I forget exactly when I found out this info as a kid, but I believe it was between the years of 2008-2010.

[@joshuaidugboe214]

I heard that nitrogen based compounds arr explosive and release alot of energy in reactions. Mabey at lower tempuratures they could be more stable and be used in the inner metabolism for cells in these worlds

[@TheTyrial86]

lol, can you imagine an exploding tentacle monster that just wants to be your friend.

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

Nitrogen-based compounds typically are easy to bring to a rapidly-propagating gas reaction in contact with free oxygen around 300-600 kelvin. At 100-200 kelvin and absent of oxygen, nitrogen compounds are much more stable.

[@TheTyrial86]

@@TheReaverOfDarkness What would we, as oxygen based organisms, have to do in order to interact with a species like that?

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

@@TheTyrial86 The temperature and likely pressure difference are probably going to be the only hurdles, which may be roughly the same hurdles with carbon&water-based life. Should the pressure and temperature be close enough to each other, we should be able to get by with very thin coverings to keep the relative noxious chemicals from intermixing, but it shouldn't be that much of a safety hazard as long as there is medical equipment available for the foreigner species, in case of a suit leak. Small amounts of ammonia in the air won't hurt us, and small amounts of water in the air probably won't hurt them. Remember, their bodies are going to be quite well contained within some kind of skin or exoskeleton, to protect the juice inside from unwanted chemical reactions. All life must be this way.

[@raymondfisher9016]

Happy 🎂 day from the fans of SFIA!!!

[@gormanspacemarine]

Thank you.

[@fabiomorandi3585]

Fun fact: at 1 atmosphere of pressure, ammonia and carbon dioxide freeze only 0.7 degrees apart from each other, meaning ammonia-based life forms are much more likely to breathe hydrogen rather than oxygen.

[@jacobmosovich]

Cawbon based wife fowms OwO

[@jensphiliphohmann1876]

15:15 The rage of liquid ammonia, as that of any liquid, can be expanded by rising the pressure.

[@NeroDefogger]

a rare good episode

[@josecano326]

I believe theres also a moon in our solar system which had methane oceans on the surface and water oceans deep beneath its ice sheets, right? And methane was speculated to be able to be used as a solvent as well. I believe they even found molecules that could be analogues to lipids. I believe they are called azotosomes.

[@kennyholmes5196]

That's Titan, actually.

[@bugmaster05]

Methanes is too weak solvent for life to use. It needs to be able to dissolve a lot of molecules to form complex chemistry

[@mathewdruggan8877]

Greetings from a fellow Ohioan about 6 counties south west of you. I was wondering if you could entertain the notion of doing a scifi sunday episode sometime on the Victorian futurism notions like a breathable atmosphere in space or ballooning to other worlds. I believe I have seen just about all of your episodes but don't believe I have ever seen one on this particular subject other than in passing. Another note I would like to add is that this episode was extremely entertaining to me as I work in industrial hygienics and environmental sciences. Thank you to you and your channel for always keeping me company when I'm working solo. ☺

[@napoleonfeanor]

So his broad accent is typical for Ohio?

[@samfarrelly4766]

Hey just wondering do all Ohioans not know how to make the 'R' sound or just Mistew awthuw?

[@LiezAllLiez]

Remember kids, if the planet doesnt "waddle", it probably doesnt have life...

[@VolteVaris]

A popular theoretical play into a civilization of ammonia-based creatures has some degree of popularity in online circles; Might be of note to people.

[@PrinceTrish]

Wasn't Dwight Schultz in The A-Team very interested in ammonia and it's unlikely uses? 😂

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Oh yeah, Murdock had some amusing moments, iirc he thought it had burned the soles of his shoes and maybe something to do with ET :)

[@plasticpinocchio247]

The Volus!

[@caav56]

And Avali

[@matushonko7223]

awesome viedeo, two chemistry points however: a) aren't ammonia metal solutions metastable (slowly reacting to hydrogen and amides/imides/nitrides) similarly to h2o->oh- ? b) ammonia worlds would get less sunlight, but being colder the energy they would get could be utilised much more efficiently in theory (both via basic thermodynamics, and due to lower metabolic load for repairing random whatnots- less stuff would break due to side reactions and need replacing) Also, it just dawned on me that life might exploit ammonia also as a redox component (CO2 + NH3 CxNxHx + H2O + N2) which would likely make for easier organics, but that N2 production could end up being an issue (lest there was a mechanism for replenishing it back to NH3 ; that seems like too much an altruism to expect it done by life) Which I assume is my biggest problem with NH3 based life: it's not that it would be impossible; rather that there are too many "easy road" dead ends that would slowly transform the environment into a bomb (eg. using nitrates as an energy storage medium), or render it unlivable (the plethora of pathways ammonia could be used up as a food source or whatnot)

[@acclimate_hiphop]

I love that you say "water" as "wortore"

[@joat2300]

Rocky says hello shout out to anyone who got that reference

[@dylanimalCS]

Great book

[@VincentNajger1]

HMMMM MMMMMM MMM MMMMMMMM