What Is Life? #6: How Weird Can Life Get?

“What Is Life?” is an eight-episode podcast series recorded in front of a live audience. (Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, via RSS, etc.)

In this episode, I talked with Steven Benner, a scientist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, about how strange life can get. All the life we know is the same: carbon-based, with DNA for genes. (Okay, except for RNA viruses.) But Benner says we should remain open to the possibility that life elsewhere is very, very weird.

Update: If you’d like to learn more about scientists exploring the borderlands between the living and nonliving worlds, check out my new book Life’s Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive.

Links:
Benner at FFAME
An article I wrote about Benner for the New York Times

If you enjoyed this episode, listen to Episode 7 or check out all eight episodes on the main podcast page. And please spread the word however you can, such as reviewing it on Apple and elsewhere!

What Is Life? was recorded in front of a live audience at Caveat in New York and is supported by a grant from Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative. Artwork by Caryn Audenried.