Some Earth-like Worlds May Have Foliage of Colors Other Than Green, 
Researchers Say

        http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12971.html

_________________



So. How did that subject line strike you.
At first scan it entered my brain as an interesting comment and 
triggered various peripheral thought lines about chemistries, world 
types etc.

And then, the audacious, preamble ignoring vastness and cosmological 
quantum leap of it sank in.
While the article itself is not quite so gauche or starry eyed or 
cut-to-the-chase, the whole thing is an interesting leap of faith and 
hope and expectation.

ie "The plants we find may well not be green ..."

We will find plants.
There is life.
We will find it.
Life will be so evident that we will be able to spot it's signature 
from earth based on foliage emission/absorbtion spectra. ... !

In fact the reasoning is probably slightly more reasonable and more 
like -

"You cant' get there from here.
At least, certainly not any time soon.
You can't see much from here.
Given what we CAN see, what COULD we see if it was there.
Plants, you say?
Lots of plants! ?
Ah. ONLY if there's lots of plants.
OK.
We'll take what we can get.
What would lots of plants look like then?
...

Note that their argument for why our plants are mainly green is a very 
poor one.
To paraphrase poorly:
    Blue end is energetic - we'll have that.
    Red end has lots of emissions, we'll have that.
    OK - we don't need any more energy. What's left. Green?.
    OK. let's be green to minimise the green energy we absorb.

Yeah. Right.

No matter. Still provides interesting food for thought.



        Russell


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