thanks Marcia...one question of many raised...
The article talks about how it's unlikely alien life would evolve with "four limbs and two eyes, a nose and a mouth..." but if it works for life on earth, why not elsewhere?
I mean, since living things evolve apparently toward more efficient and advanced forms, wouldn't some "universal" basics apply--stereo vision, for example, or opposable digits.
Might a measure of convergence not be expected? Surely environment would have a massive impact on evolutionary form, but on earth-like planets would there not be, perhaps, a tendency toward earth-like forms?