I stumbled upon (not on stumbleupon) these colored SEM images on the Telegraph webpage today. I especially love this image of a Calliphoridae larva (Protophormia sp.) that seems more out of a C-rated science fiction movie than nature. It reminds me of both a freakish Star Wars character and a Muppet at the same time. The abrupt departure from standard mammalian body architecture makes insects prime candidates for other-worldly aliens. Insects must have been used as a guide for movies like District 9, Starship Troopers, Alien, Galaxy Quest… just to name a few recent ones. I am sure that other, more well-accredited, sci-fi geeks out there can think of even better examples. Along the same lines I recall these images I snapped of a Cerambycidae beetle below – Moneilema gigas. This was in the earliest days of my new camera so I can’t look back on them as perfect shots.
But if aliens landed here in spite of Stephen Hawking, and looked anything like this, I’d be amazed at the convergence and would dream instantly of little human-like pests dashing under their feet. It would be incredible to actually find an alien of any order, and even more incredible to see what evolution has done with it. Perhaps we share a common ancestry, or are thoroughly novel molecule by molecule. The likelihood of this happening in my lifetime is very near zero and this may even remain a question that future generations of scientists shall forever be left dreaming about.
