Why aliens might look like you: DNA could be a 'universal constant' - making humans and ET closer to 'cousins'
To anyone who has seen the film 'Prometheus', it will be a very familiar story.
Humans and aliens may share the same DNA which could be part of a 'universal structure', according to researchers.
The building blocks of life exist in low temperatures and low pressure meaning they are far more likely to flourish than if they were more complex.
Whilst no concrete proof has been found yet, the finding makes it more likely they would develop on strange planets than had previously been thought.
More like the one on the right: If the theory by astrophysicist Ralph Pudritz is correct, we are more likely to run into a Klingon from Star Trek (right) than an alien from Aliens (almost certainly a good thing)
The theory was put forward by Ralph Pudritz of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario who built on existing research into amino acids.
In total there are 20 standard such chemicals, which contain the DNA from which human life developed.
Researchers have already synthesized the 10 which are thought to have existed millions of years ago - and also discovered these are most likely to be found on meteorites too.
Purditz has concluded that these 10 are simpler, need less heat and lower pressure than more complex acids, meaning they are more likely to survive in hostile environments.
As Noomi Rapace discovers in Prometheus, man is not alone in the universe - but will we be genetically similar?
So maybe we won't find.... The Doctor's nemesis, the Daleks...
...Or the Predators from the films of the same name
And whilst the exact conditions of meteorites are not known, they are thought to be warm and hydrated which would make comparable conditions to a young Earth.
Purditz said: 'This may implicate a universal structure of the first genetic codes anywhere...
'There's a theory that they could be made in the warm interiors of large-enough meteorite'.
He added: 'Thermodynamics is fundamental.
'It must hold through all points of the universe. If you can show there are certain frequencies that fall in a natural way like this, there is an implied universality.
'It has to be tested, but it seems to make a lot of sense.'
In 'Prometheus' an alien race land on Earth millions of years ago where they decide to create human life.
In the opening sequence a human like creature is seen drinking a black fluid before falling into stream where the first creatures suddenly spring to life.
Harvard University systems biologist Irene Chen, who specialises in molecular evolution, said the new work was 'interesting' but hard to analyse without experiments to back it up.
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