Have you ever heard of the spell of the adhesive eating extraterrestrial creatures? It is a fascinating topic that combines elements of science fiction and fantasy. These creatures are said to come from another planet, and their main characteristic is their ability to consume any type of adhesive substance. This includes glue, tape, and even stickers. They are attracted to these materials and have the ability to digest them without any harm. The idea of adhesive-eating extraterrestrial creatures may sound far-fetched, but it has captured the imaginations of many people. Some believe that these creatures could be the answer to solving the world's waste problem.
Their pitch worked: The expanded lunch table became LAB. Now the project, a spread-out coalition of scientists more than a single physical laboratory, is a few years deep into its work. The researchers aim to learn how things like the complexity of a surface, anomalous concentrations of elements and energy transfer—such as the movement of electrons between atoms—might reveal life as no one knows it.
It would find and measure molecules whose shapes fit physically together like lock and key because that rarely happens in random collections of chemical compounds but pops up all over living cells. On Mars, researchers have been psyched by puffs of methane, organic molecules, and the release of gas after soil was fed a solution of what we on Earth call nutrients, perhaps indicating metabolism.
Some believe that these creatures could be the answer to solving the world's waste problem. Since these creatures have an insatiable appetite for adhesives, they could potentially be used to consume and break down materials that are difficult to recycle or dispose of. In addition to their unique diet, these creatures are also believed to possess special powers.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don’t Know It
S arah Stewart Johnson was a college sophomore when she first stood atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano. Its dried lava surface was so different from the eroded, tree-draped mountains of her home state of Kentucky. Johnson wandered away from the other young researchers she was with and toward a distant ridge of the 13,800-foot summit. Looking down, she turned over a rock with the toe of her boot. To her surprise, a tiny fern lived underneath it, having sprouted from ash and cinder cones. “It felt like it stood for all of us, huddled under that rock, existing against the odds,” Johnson says.
Her true epiphany, though, wasn’t about the hardiness of life on Earth or the hardships of being human: It was about aliens. Even if a landscape seemed strange and harsh from a human perspective, other kinds of life might find it quite comfortable. The thought opened up the cosmic real estate, and the variety of life, she imagined might be beyond Earth’s atmosphere. “It was on that trip that the idea of looking for life in the universe began to make sense to me,” Johnson says.
Later, Johnson became a professional at looking. As an astronomy postdoc at Harvard University in the late 2000s and early 2010s she investigated how astronomers might use genetic sequencing—detecting and identifying DNA and RNA—to find evidence of aliens. Johnson found the work exciting (the future alien genome project!), but it also made her wonder: What if extraterrestrial life didn’t have DNA or RNA or other nucleic acids? What if their cells got instructions in some other biochemical way?
As an outlet for heretical thoughts like this, Johnson started writing in a style too lyrical and philosophical for scientific journals. Her typed musings would later turn into the 2020 popular science book The Sirens of Mars. Inside its pages, she probed the idea that other planets were truly other, and so their inhabitants might be very different, at a fundamental and chemical level, from anything on this world. “Even places that seem familiar—like Mars, a place that we think we know intimately—can completely throw us for a loop,” she says. “What if that’s the case for life?”
If Johnson’s musings are correct, the current focus of the hunt for aliens—searching for life as we know it—might not work for finding biology in the beyond. “There’s this old maxim that if you lose your keys at night, the first place you look is under the lamppost,” says Johnson, who is now an associate professor at Georgetown University. If you want to find life, look first at the only way you know life can exist: in places kind of like Earth, with chemistry kind of like Earthlings’.
Much of astrobiology research involves searching for chemical “biosignatures”—molecules or combinations of molecules that could indicate the presence of life. But because scientists can’t reliably say that ET life should look, chemically, like Earth life, seeking those signatures could mean we miss beings that might be staring us in the face. “How do we move beyond that?” Johnson asks. “How do we contend with the truly alien?” Scientific methods, she thought, should be more open to varieties of life based on varied biochemistry: life as we don’t know it. Or, in a new term coined here, “LAWDKI.”
Now Johnson is getting a chance to figure out how, exactly, to contend with that unknown kind of life, as the principal investigator of a new NASA-funded initiative called the Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures (LAB). LAB’s research doesn’t count on ET having specific biochemistry at all, so it doesn’t look for specific biosignatures. LAB aims to find more fundamental markers of biology, such as evidence of complexity—intricately arranged molecules that are unlikely to assemble themselves without some kind of biological forcing—and disequilibrium, such as unexpected concentrations of molecules on other planets or moons. These are proxies for life as no one knows it.
Maybe someday, if LAB has its way, they will become more than proxies. These signals could help answer one of humankind’s oldest questions—Are we alone?—and show us that we’re not so special, and neither is our makeup.
Some say that they have the ability to create their own adhesive substances, which they use to trap their prey or build intricate structures. Others believe that they have the power of invisibility, allowing them to move undetected through our world. While there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of adhesive-eating extraterrestrial creatures, the concept is fascinating to think about. It brings together elements of science and fantasy, pushing the boundaries of our imagination. Who knows, maybe one day we will discover that these creatures do indeed exist, and that they can help us solve some of our greatest challenges. But for now, the spell of the adhesive eating extraterrestrial creatures remains a captivating idea that sparks our curiosity and wonder..
Reviews for "Unleashing the Power of Adhesion: How Extraterrestrial Creatures Consume Sticky Substances"
1. Mark - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with "Spell of the adhesive eating extraterrestrial creatures". The premise sounded interesting, but the execution fell flat. The characters lacked depth and the plot felt disjointed. The humor also missed the mark for me, as most of the jokes felt forced and too reliant on slapstick comedy. Overall, I found the book to be underwhelming and struggled to stay engaged throughout.
2. Emily - 3/5 stars - While "Spell of the adhesive eating extraterrestrial creatures" had its moments, I couldn't fully enjoy it. The concept was intriguing, but the writing style didn't resonate with me. The pacing felt off, with moments that dragged on and others that were rushed. Additionally, the dialogue often felt unnatural and the characters lacked believable motivations. Although there were some funny moments and creative ideas, they weren't enough to make up for the overall flaws in the book.
3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I was excited to read "Spell of the adhesive eating extraterrestrial creatures" as a fan of science fiction, but it left me disappointed. The story seemed to lack direction and purpose, making it difficult to fully invest in the plot or connect with the characters. The writing style was also overly descriptive and dragged on unnecessarily, making the reading experience tedious. Overall, I found the book to be lacking in substance and failed to deliver on its promising premise.