---
title: "Hypothetical types of biochemistry"
chunk: 7/7
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:51:22.917946+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Scientists who have published on this topic ==
Scientists who have considered possible alternatives to carbon-water biochemistry include:

J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964), a geneticist noted for his work on abiogenesis.
V. Axel Firsoff (1910–1981), British astronomer. cited in Ammonia-based Life.
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992), biochemist and science fiction writer.
Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), astronomer, science fiction writer, panspermia proponent.
Norman Horowitz (1915–2005), Caltech geneticist who devised the first experiments done to detect life on Mars.
George C. Pimentel (1922–1989), American chemist, University of California, Berkeley.
Peter Sneath (1923–2011), microbiologist, author of the book Planets and Life.
Gerald Feinberg (1933–1992), physicist and Robert Shapiro (1935–2011), chemist, co-authors of the book Life Beyond Earth.
Carl Sagan (1934–1996), astronomer, science popularizer, and SETI proponent.
Jonathan Lunine (born 1959), American planetary scientist and physicist.
Robert Freitas (born 1952), specialist in nanotechnology and nanomedicine.This work is acknowledged the partial basis of the article Ammonia-based Life.
John Baross (born 1940), oceanographer and astrobiologist, who chaired a committee of scientists under the United States National Research Council that published a report on life's limiting conditions in 2007.

== See also ==

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Bains, William (2004). "Many Chemistries Could Be Used to Build Living Systems". Astrobiology. 4 (2): 137–167. Bibcode:2004AsBio...4..137B. doi:10.1089/153110704323175124. PMID 15253836. S2CID 27477952.
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