Living Among Us

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To help focus the search, scientists can glean clues from the burgeoning field of synthetic, or artificial, life. Biochemists are currently attempting to engineer completely novel organisms by inserting additional amino acids into proteins. A pioneer of this research, Steve Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla., has pointed out that a class of molecules known as alpha-methyl amino acids look promising for artificial life because they can fold properly. These molecules, however, have not been found in any natural organism studied to date. As investigators identify new microbes, it would be a relatively simple matter to use standard tools for analyzing the composition of proteins, such as mass spectrometry, to learn which amino acids the organisms contain. Any glaring oddities in the inventory would signal that the microbe could be a candidate for shadow life.

For those who wish to keep foxes out of their gardens, and from having their babies (kits) under their houses, there a few tips we have put together. Other than that there is no defending this film. I found myself angry after watching it. Angry that it wasted 87 minutes of my life. Angry, that with all of the talent out there, this is one of the projects dubbed good enough to invest money and time on. But mostly, I was livid with whomever it was that greenlit this film, the way it was. It’s sad that William Sadler wasted his talent on this and even sadder that this was John Heard‘s last feature before his death.

Life, but not as we know it

Thirty years ago the prevailing view among biologists was that life resulted from a chemical fluke so improbable it would be unlikely to have happened twice in the observable universe. That conservative position was exemplified by Nobel Prize–winning French biologist Jacques Monod, who wrote in 1970: “Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” In recent years, however, the mood has shifted dramatically. In 1995 renowned Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve called life “a cosmic imperative” and declared “it is almost bound to arise” on any Earth-like planet. De Duve’s statement reinforced the belief among astrobiologists that the universe is teeming with life. Dubbed biological determinism by Robert Shapiro of New York University, this theory is sometimes expressed by saying that “life is written into the laws of nature.” What I liked about this movie was its point of difference. I alwayshad a penchantfor vampires and I feel strongly about finding great found-footage films so putting these two things together is genius. Brian A. Metcalf is the writer and director, and he also had his hands all over some of the effects of the film. I loved that the violence is over the top blood spatter everywhere thrill killing. Knowing the vampire family will at some time kill doesn’t really prepare you for its graphics and public statement. To find it, we have to somehow think outside of the terrestrial biology box and figure out ways of recognising lifeforms that are fundamentally different from the carbon-based form. There are plenty of experiments testing out these alternative biochemistries, such as the one from Caltech.

Urbanization is a form of habitat alteration. Urban ecosystems allow foxes to live amongst us, having a small amount of vegetation and opportunities to kill rodents to keep them alive. What Is A converse problem also exists: dissimilar organisms subjected to similar environmental challenges will often gradually converge in their properties, which will become optimized for thriving under existing conditions. If this evolutionary convergence were strong enough, it could mask the evidence for independent biogenesis events. For example, the choice of amino acids may have been optimized by evolution. Alien life that began using a different set of amino acids might then have evolved over time to adopt the same set that familiar life-forms use. If you put these sorts of tropes aside as par for the course, you’ll find that Living Among Us from writer/director Brian A. Metcalf offers a convincing look into what a world of vampires might really be like.

Where might investigators look for alien organisms on Earth today? Some scientists have focused on searching for organisms occupying a niche that is ecologically isolated, lying beyond the reach of ordinary known life. One of the surprising discoveries in recent years is the ability of known life to endure extraordinarily harsh conditions. Microbes have been found inhabiting extreme environments ranging from scalding volcanic vents to the dry valleys of Antarctica. Other so-called extremophiles can survive in salt-saturated lakes, highly acidic mine tailings contaminated with metals, and the waste pools of nuclear reactors. There was Feodor Fedorenko, a Ukranian guard at the Treblinka extermination camp. Fodorenko lived in Waterbury, Connecticut, and was only discovered in 1977 — the year “Hunters” takes place. Three years later he was extradited to the USSR, where he was tried, convicted and executed. The mission proved an “unmitigated failure” from the start, according to Graham Welch, an historian and attorney. Some people feed urban foxes. Leaving them their food scraps, sometimes leaving out dog food and cat food for them. While this seems like a good way to help foxes, it can sometimes cause them to become dependent on humans. Urban So why haven’t we found it? We have limited ways of studying the microscopic world as only a small percentage of microbes can be cultured in a lab. This may mean that there could indeed be many lifeforms we haven’t yet spotted. We do now have the ability to sequence the DNA of unculturable strains of microbes, but this can only detect life as we know it – that contain DNA.