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Published online 31 January 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050131-2
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Titanic life may bloom without water
Hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon could be a solvent for biological molecules.
Are those dark patches on Titan really oceans, fed by rivers of liquid ethane? And if so, what are the fish like?
The extraordinary images sent from Saturn's giant moon by the Huygens spacecraft should make speculation about life in liquids other than water more than a scientific parlour game.
In fact, a lifeless Titan would point to a gap in our understanding of carbon-based molecules, says chemist Steven Benner of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
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