Re: New York Times re Fermi's Question

Joseph Lazio wrote:
> > > > > > "MG" == Matt Giwer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> MG> Alfred A. Aburto Jr. wrote:
>
> > > > "Matt Giwer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > > Joseph Lazio wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > The next question is, When did the amount of heavy elements build
> > > > > up to a sufficient amount that planets and intelligent beings
> > > > > could form?  We don't yet know the answer to this question,
> > > > > though Mario Livio has speculated that this might have taken a
> > > > > large fraction of the Universe's age.
>
> > > > When we know all possible forms of life we will know the elements
> > > > needed for them. But as we know the distribution of elements is
> > > > not uniform we will still be dealing with the statistics of
> > > > guessing what is a significant concentration of them in the same
> > > > place for life to start. There is no law against life being
> > > > limited to a small area of one planet where the essential elements
> > > > are all in one place. 
>
> > > Or to one region of a galaxy or cluster of galaxies ...
>
> MG> Speaking of which, why so many even numbered elements in our
> MG> version of life?
>
> You mean like the pattern shown in
> <URL:http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/users/cowley/sad.html>?

	Which then suggests any elements will do for life but naturally the most abundant life 
will use the most abundant elements. Which suggests any old elements will do.

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