Mmmm, Aliens. Yummy!

[Lance]

This is probably more for Dr. Arneb...

Based on a couple of other conversations around here somewhere, I think we've determined that alien life could very well use something like DNA. But we've also recently learned that even DNA can be different that we previously believed.

Given that DNA is how proteins are made and proteins can be very toxic, isn't it highly likely that eating an alien could be quite hazardous to one's health? And conversely, that the idea of the aliens coming here and eating us all is better suited to the world of science fiction?

[Arneb]

That's a lovely question. As there are no sampoles beyond our own DNA-RNA-protein biopsphere, no-one knows.

Some things can be stated though.
1.) it almost certain that the genetic code almost universally employed by the Terran biosphere is not dictated by the laws of chmeistry alone but contingent upon its history of formation. While a (say) Glycin-coding tRNA works because its chemical affinity to Glycin is orders of magnitude higher than for any other amino acid, it is quite conceivable that totally different tRNA (or whatever NA) could exist that display a similar preponderance towards glycin. Thus, a different molecular basis for genetics (different sugars, different nucleotides...), a different genetic code, and a different set of biogenic amino acids are all conceivable.

2.) Short of being toxic, an alien could simply be non-digestible - an alien amino acid could simply be immune to enteric proteases or pass by the transport proteins embedded in the gut wall. Also, they could be non-nourishing. Many Terran organisms (among them, humans) have deficiencies in amino acid synthesis, thus depending on their food containing those amino acids (which are called essential amino acids). If your alien beef does not contain all essential amino acids, you die of malourishment no matter how many alien calories your diet contains.

3. And yes, the foreign proteins culd happen to be toxic - the proteins or their constituent amino acids (or a foreigns nuclei acid, nucleoside or nucleotide, for that matter).

The subject got some treatment in a "hard science fiction" novel, Encounter With Tiber, to which Buzz Aldrin lent his name. The rather humanoid aliens that dicover humanity around 7200 B.C. find, to their chagrin, that Earth's biosphere can't support them because (only) a few amino acids don't fit and accumulate in their body, causing some organ failure over time.

[Lance]

So before eating an alien, it would probably be a good idea to feed some to your rhesus monkey first.

Wow, lots of possibilities. They could be toxic, allergenic, or like lactose in some, cause an intolerance. I'll bet alien indigestion farts are awful.

Hopefully they don't have a digestive system that can break down anything into its most basic constituent parts and then reconstruct the necessary nutrients form them. Of course, if they did, they wouldn't need to chase us down. They could just eat the trees.

Of course, at least in my case, I expect I would be a tender, tasty morsel.

[Enzo]

Could be the aliens' way to say "bite me".

being eaten might also be their way of reproducing, so as soon as your digestive tract breaks down their cells, they start to multiply and feed off your innards.

[Lance]

That's an AWESOME idea!

[Arneb]

I'd put the allergies on the back burner, though. Except under special circumstances (e.g. the AB0 blood group system), you can only be intolerant towards something you've already encountered. But of course, the allegenicity could really be a toxicity shzort-circuiting the immune system. Or, by pure happenstance, they could contain somthing that perfectly mimics seafood AND peanuts, and off you go.

All in all, I'd wager a small sum and bet that aliens would be a lot more likely to be inedeble than edible.

[Lianachan]

The last time we were all eating aliens it nearly ended in disaster.

[Мастер]

The last time we were all eating aliens it nearly ended in disaster.

Fry handcuffs himself to a revolving door . I'll have to catch that one sometime.

[Lance]

So this is probably unlikely:

[Enzo]

I think it was at BABB, but I once posited that some alien species might arrive at earth. They'd be some sort of hive mentality, but they reproduced readily, and it was their custom to meet someone new and offer up one of their offspring to eat as a way of greeting and bonding. And of course, they'd expect the same of us, after all any CIVILIZED species would certainly off one of their young to eat. And we would not cooperate, which would offend them greatly, in fact the ultimate offense, so they'd blow us away.


I remember a scifi short story where a guy crashes on some planet, and is lying there in bad shape. Some indigenous species picked him up and took him to her nest/den/lair and tended to him, nursing him back to health. She was a species somewhat resembling a spider, and they could not establish communication other than rudimentary gestures, but she seemed to mean well, she had some young she was raising. One day he was feeling pretty well healed up and was contemplating leaving the nest to try to return to his civilization, when she reached over to him, touched an arm/leg to his neck and... he felt a sharp stab at his neck and was instantly rendered paralyzed. He watched helplessly as she then laid her eggs into his abdomen through some sort of body extension. Too late, he realized she had been fattening him up to feed a new round of young.