Are there scientists currently, who could describe their specialization as "xenobiologist" or are they merely a thing of science-fiction? Assuming an alien is discovered today, and willing to cooperate with scientists, who would be sent to study their biology? What organization/entity would be their employer?
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$\begingroup$ I think they do. Even today you have to study what happens to organisms in zero gravity. So I think that NASA has some specialists... $\endgroup$– Pavel JanicekApr 15, 2015 at 6:19
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$\begingroup$ And fun comment: One is even registered on StackOverflow ;) $\endgroup$– Pavel JanicekApr 15, 2015 at 6:22
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$\begingroup$ Xenobiologists don't study the effects of microgravity on natural organisms. That would be space medicine. $\endgroup$– JDługoszApr 15, 2015 at 7:17
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$\begingroup$ Related would be cryptozoologie though that is more related to mythical creatures $\endgroup$– ratchet freakApr 15, 2015 at 8:46
3 Answers
Yes, Xenobiologists exist, it's a subfield of synthetic biology. Obviously no one is experienced with actually studying alien life, but xenobiologists could be well suited.
Most likely those who would study actual alien life are normal biologists, xenobiologists, exobiologists, and astrobiologists. Xenobiologists imagine and simulate what alien life might be like, exobiologists work on how to search for that life, and astrobiologists are the ones who decide what sensors are put on our Mars landers and various other probes trying to detect alien life. These people are employed by all sorts of different organizations.
If we met sentient aliens today, our alien ambassador would meet with them. Earth's alien ambassador is Mazlan Othman, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. That's not really true, she might be selected, but it's nothing official.
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$\begingroup$ Nice. Still, if you have a lean, agile alien that weighs nearly a ton, that's something bigger than detecting traces of organic substances in Mars rocks. So Xenobiologists seem "closer" to that... And nice touch with Mazlan Othman, especially that she's an Astrophysicist, certainly competent to ask questions about FTL travels etc. Joins the team right now. $\endgroup$– SF.Apr 15, 2015 at 8:59
So XB describes a form of biology that is not (yet) familiar to science and is not found in nature. In practice it describes novel biological systems and biochemistries that differ from the canonical DNA-RNA-20 amino acid system (see the classical central dogma in molecular biology). For example,...
The article has headings for Biosafty and Governance and Regulatory issues, so clearly people are doing that.
It doesn't require aliens.
For who and how etc., see the links on that page such as XB1: The First Conference On Xenobiology.
In short, Google, look at second hit.
The biologist Jack Cohen has described himself as a Xenobiologist in the books he has co-authored with the mathematician Ian Stewart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cohen_(scientist).
In particular, he is interested in using the xenobiological perspective to shed light on those aspects of organisms that would persist if evolution were repeatedly re-started ('Universals') as distinct from those which are merely 'frozen accidents' ('parochials').