David Grinspoon

And, you know, I've been a proponent of that we have to keep an open mind about that.

You know, there are people who will point out, you know, one of my colleagues, Chris McKay at NASA Ames Research Center, a great astrobiologist.

Yeah, and Chris doesn't agree with me about the prospects for life on Venus.

And what he says is like, why aren't the clouds green?

Meaning on Earth, if you could have life in the clouds so easily, then why aren't the clouds green?

And that's an interesting objection, but it may be that there's some characteristics of the Venusian clouds that are more suitable for life than Earth clouds.

Well, I mean, his point is that life is so opportunistic that anywhere on earth where you can have life, it's abundant.

You do, yes.

So why are our clouds full of life if you can have life in clouds?

Yeah, because you always want to find some niche where your predators can't get to.

There's a lot of pressure to just live in new places if you can.

Well, one difference is that on Earth, clouds are not a very stable environment.

They don't last.

They come and go.

They evaporate.

They literally dissipate.

Very thin gathering of water vapor.

Venus is covered with a permanent global cloud deck.

I see.

So the clouds of Venus are almost like the oceans of Earth in terms of the stability of the environment.