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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2013-11-25 15:23, spike wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span>There
are other expanding liquids like beryllium difluoride, but
most are elements like silicon, bismuth, antimony, gallium
and plutonium<span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Ja. I
can’t think of any life forms that depend on that
oddball characteristic of water ice. Perhaps the
remarkable thing here is that with all the ice on this
planet, there are no known (to me) life forms that use
it in its solid phase. One would think there would be a
snow eater somewhere. Clearly it wouldn’t be to extract
energy from the water (ground state compound) but rather
some kind of life form that can plant itself in snow and
use sunlight.</span></p>
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<br>
There are algae that thrive not just on or under sea-ice, but in it:
<a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_krembsdeming.html">http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_krembsdeming.html</a><br>
Also, some animals have adapted to freezing in order to (I assume)
get a first shot at good locations: <a
href="http://science.whoi.edu/labs/pinedalab/Subpages/larvaeinice.html">http://science.whoi.edu/labs/pinedalab/Subpages/larvaeinice.html</a><br>
<br>
But note that they do not eat snow - it would need to provide so
much energy per volume eaten that it counteracts the energy required
to melt it, and that is a pretty tall order.<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span>
Even I agree that a planet with plutonium oceans is
unlikely to be habitable for life. -- Dr Anders Sandberg<span
style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">I
learned a new thing by thinking about this. There is an
isotope of plutonium which is non-fissile, 244. Get a
sphere of the stuff, heat it to 900 and some Kelvin, you
have an ocean of plutonium, with radioactive particles
up the kazoo but no fission. Until Anders’ offhanded
comment about an ocean of plutonium, I never knew there
was such a critter. Ain’t science kewallll? {8-]</span></p>
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<br>
Sounds like a great practical joke to do when re-engineering a solar
system. A hot ecology based on plutonium as a solvent for some weird
metal-oxide biochemistry/mechanochemistry. <br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
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