If you have been following this blog’s A2Z Challenge then you will know that I have been trying to finish a novel, “Train Wreck”, and publishing a chapter below each post – at least until day 15 when I ran out of completed chapters – there is another one in progress – but if you have been following the novel and would like to receive the balance of the chapters – let me know in a comment. Meanwhile, if you imagined Xenobiology to be the study of aliens – think again…
When researching the V post on diseases in space, I imagined that Xenobiology would be the subject to mine for information, the word Xeno being from the Greek Zenos meaning Stranger/Alien– but no – that was Astrobiology. Xenobiology has very down to earth goals trying to solve issues of disease right here on Earth – albeit in a very strange way.
Earth life uses the genetic code based on DNA and RNA – nucleic acids that carry information to let us construct our bodies (but also diseases and viruses!). Xenobiology attempts to use nucleic acid analogues, expanded genetic code and non-proteinogenic amino acids. Wait! This sounds like GM – Genetic Modification which some people think is A Very Bad Thing! Well yes and no! The modification of genetic action of cells is so radical that it may include substituting an entirely synthetic genetic mechanism and the aim of that is to make conventional GM safer.
One of the great fears about GM is the “horizontal gene transfer” and its possible effects on humans and the environment. Xenobiology aims to firewall genetic changes by replacing the whole or parts of the genetic mechanism. If you love geeky stuff, go read the Wikipedia article or if you want the layman’s version try this.
In fact, Xenobiology might be a tool in Astrobiology since it sheds light on quite other ways in which life could be structured on alien worlds, but you only have to look to the deepest oceans on Earth to find such alien life chemistry. Down there in the total dark, exist microbes that use chemosynthesis based on hydrogen sulphide instead of the carbon dioxide of photosynthesis – something quite unimagined until their quite recent discovery. If such different life chemistry is possible, why not different gene chemistry?
I don’t pretend to understand Xenobiology but I see that it is a fascinating branch of science and I have given you a signpost if you want to go there…