Aliens too Wierd to Spot?...

Just to follow through from my last post on habitable planets and water...

According to the National Academy of Sciences panel, extraterrestrial life may be so wierd we couldn't recognize it, says Maggie Fox of the Vancouver Sun. The panel suggested last Friday that NASA's approach to "follow the water" may be too parochial and works only on the assumption that life everywhere is like life on Earth, based on water, carbon and DNA. But the panel of experts convened in Washington Seattle, contend that this approach may miss something exotic.

The purpose of a report commissioned by the U.S. space agency from the National Research Council (that advises the federal government on scientific issues) was to "be able to look for life on other planets and moons iwth an open mind," said John Baross, professor of Oceanography at the University of Washington and chair of the committee.

What might they look like? Will they have intelligence? Would we even recognize it?...We should perhaps be looking to the science-fiction writers of this planet for some ideas on other "life" forms...Of course, I always knew that...