Thoughts on astrobiology?

Physiologies of living organisms on different planets change by local gravity forces first, and temperature and other life supporting conditions. Earth is home of nearly 10 million species, i think none of them could be found on different planets. Each planet with living organism on it might has own unique species. So if we calculate and guess the number of planets with living creatures in universe, we find very big numbers on variety of species to be studied.

The most important thing, and the thing that always blows it for me when I see stories about alien life, is they make it like us. Why oh why do they always make the aliens look like us?

Look at a human, and a lobster, and an orange tree. Now realize something important - they all evolved from a common ancestor and share a family resemblance. You and a slug have a family resemblance.

Now, when I see someone's alien that's upright, with a head on top, eyes and mouth on the front, and arms it uses to grasp and manipulate things, the first thing I think is 'my god, you have no imagination at all, do you?'

Any alien life should be more different than me, physiologically, than a lobster is. Read some HP Lovecraft for a great example. _At the Mountains of Madness_ is a fantastic story that does a great job of the weirdness of alien life and the insignificance of humans.

In any environment in which energy transfers can take place, a biology could exist.