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Jan 22, 2024

Life on Earth Uses Water as a Solvent. What are Some Other Options for Life as We Don’t Know it?

Posted by in category: chemistry

Your body’s cells use water to dissolve chemicals. It’s the same with all life on Earth. But could other fluids work as a solvent? A new paper reviews the potential for different liquid solvents to support life and proposes some surprising candidates, like liquid carbon dioxide, ammonia, and even concentrated sulfuric acid. Each of these solvents is liquid in dramatically different conditions, helping expand the possibilities for life as we don’t know it.

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