-----Original Message-----
From: TAYLOR, MICHAEL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 8:46 AM
Subject: RE: Alternative Energy Sources Could Support Life on Europa
>
>To me, the real question regarding alternative energy production systems is
>whether any of them might produce a molecule of oxygen as waste, as
>photosynthesis does. You get free O2 in the water, you've got the
>possibility of large, robust organisms not unlike ourselves. Any other
>energy system--while leading to interesting life, no question--is likely to
>remain 100 % microbial, precluding bug-eyed mosterns in the Europan seas.
>
>Mike Taylor
Well, no, unfortunately you don't -- all those energy sources are far less
energetic than photosynthesis, and so would be incapable of powering
multicelled organisms themselves, or of producing any large amount of oxygen
in the water to power multicelled animals. (I suppose that magnetotrophs
that took advantage of Europa's induced eddy currents might be an exception,
but I doubt it.)
Bruce Moomaw
==
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