A physicist named V.N. Tsytovich from the Russian Academy of Science in
Moscow
believes he has found compelling evidence for extra-terrestrial life in a
computer model. It comes to us in the form of a corkscrew-shaped bit of what
we would call "dust." While inorganic in nature (not based on carbon), computer
models have shown it exhibiting life-like properties. Tystovich and his
associates have discovered that these non-organic materials, under the right
conditions, can develop helical structures in a manner which has previously been
observed only in organic life. Even more amazing, these new structures also
include the common properties associated with DNA, such as division and
bifurcation resulting in two identical copies of the original structure.
Tystovich says it is possible these forms of "life" could exist in space and
even evolve over time the way many scientists believe life on Earth has. The
computer model he used simulating the conditions where this could take place are
very common in outer space, he says. Some of his colleagues believe it's
possible that this form of inorganic life originally settled here on Earth. It
then paved the way for the more complex organic structures which came later.