Life in the Shadows

A thought-provoking look at the scientific case for a possible “shadow biosphere” and what it would take to detect life unlike anything we know.

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The “shadow biosphere” is a provocative scientific proposal: Earth may harbour forms of life we have not yet learned to recognise. The claim is not that such organisms are supernatural or alien, but that they could be chemically unfamiliar. If our tests assume life must resemble known biology, then genuinely different biochemistry might pass unnoticed. In that sense, it could be hiding in plain sight.