sam1123

Also thank you for editing my reply, I have a habit of typing it in the wrong place when I reply too quickly

Oh I agree, I find it amazing that there may be another species out there that is technologically advanced but it a totally different way to us using different theories, concepts and materials. The possibilities are endless! I find that incredible, life as we know it in another circumstance on Earth would be completely different, that just puts into perspective how many possibilities there are for life from other planets and other environments Also I wonder if aliens are as curious or even knowledgeable about other life in the universe? Maybe there is a race close to light speed travel technology? Do you think they would be peaceful or aggressive? I think if they are sentient like us then they would surely be curious enough to want to establish contact. We often think of our technology being able to go to other planets/solar systems, but what about the possibility of an alien race doing it first? That would be truly amazing

Okay so telepathy may be far fetched haha, I'm just trying to keep an open mind without letting my mind stray too far from reality! Bio-luminescence and high frequency sound are interesting theories. Do you think they would have any other sense that we may not have, or just maybe far advanced like the scent of a dog? Also you make a good point about carbon based life, I wonder if there is even a possibility of any other element based life forms? Now I think about it, I don't really see how there can be any other species as advanced as humans that would not be carbon based. Also sorry for the small scale of thousands when talking about evolution, I was in a rush to type that first comment! I am also interested about the possibility of non vertebrates like squid type animals, do you think that if evolution was repeated on a planet with a very similar environment then because of many minor changes in many factors that this would have an effect on the end products of evolution? Maybe with a different combination of factors there would be a humanoid derivation? You said you didn't know why non-vertebrates did not conquer land, do you think that in different circumstances that they may be the dominant species on a planet in the same way that humans are on our planet? Also I wonder if they are as technologically advanced as us, whether they would be nearly the same as ours. Maybe they have their own concept of mathematics, maybe they have different materials, or maybe the have advanced years ahead of our own technology.

Yes I read a theory about this, that would be amazing. Do you think they would be sentient beings that communicated with one another? Do octopi and squid as we know communicate with each other? And what amazes me is that this is only carbon based life, I've heard theories about sulfur-based and silicon-based life forms too

I find this whole concept fascinating, it got started as I have recently been playing the game Mass Effect, which involves many other alien species. It got me thinking that would other alien species look humanoid, or even be carbon based at all. As we humans are the result of thousands of years of evolution, maybe we have become a particularly effective end product. Would evolution effect aliens in the same way? Would evolution be very similar to species from other planets which have environments similar to that of our planet Earth? I have read a few interesting theories on what extraterrestrial life will look like, and to me due to the sheer vastness of the universe I believe it is impossible for other life on planets NOT to exist. Also how about alien language, would they speak telepathically? Would they be ever be able to learn English, Russian, Chinese, any of our human languages? And vice versa, would we be able to learns theirs? I think this topic could start some excellent discussion, I find exobiology and the possibility of extraterrestrial beings infinitely fascinating

Thank you Essay, very coherent and detailed answer, very helpful! And thank you for the really cool picture michel!

Well know I don't think it's that, I'm not sure what it is so that's why i asked the question Thanks for your helpful answer. I've been doing a little bit of reading and I'm seeing fire defined as a body of superheated gas, is that correct? Which forms when oxygen mixes with a fuel?

Ooh okay, so what aspects of QM and general relativity are incompatible? I'm not that experienced in advanced physics

ah yeah okay, so the electricity is a flow of free electrons, and fire is the light we see given off from a chemical as a conversion of energy states, from chemical to light?

I've always heard this well known phenomenon but I have never really understood in detail why it is so, can anyone help me out?

Also thanks to whoever changed my title!

But what exactly is it if it is not solid, liquid or gas? Also my title was meant to be what ARE electricity and fire, sorry for the poor grammar!

I can't help but try and link them with states of matter and I get all confused. I'm sure it's something to do with electrons and energy transfer but I'm getting very confused. What exactly are they!?

I'm not sure, but there is correlation between a bacterium being Gram positive/negative and the structure of its cell wall. Usually Gram positive have just a petidoglycan cell wall and a plasma membrane, and Gram negative have those and an outer membrane consisting of lipopolysaccharides and protein. This extra thickness and complexity contributes to it's ability to resist taking up Gram stain.

The way I think of it is that they lack all of the cellular apparatus required to sustain life on it's own. It has to use the ribosomes of the host in order to translate/code for proteins to be made. Most viruses are essentially little balls of genetic information (can be DNA or RNA) in a protein coat. They can survive on their own but cannot replicate. They are a lot smaller than other pathogens (disease causing micro-organisms) such as bacteria. The proteins that they code for are usually damaging, and are what make us ill, along with the immune response such as a temperature, mucous production, which are designed to help reduce the spread and/or kill the virus. To summarise: viruses are very simple organisms, with few cellular components, and are very small. They cannot reproduce asexually or sexually. They require certain host mechanisms to multiply. They cannot respire/convert energy. However they are classified taxonomically. You might find this link helpful http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8174/