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Quote by: rez  Gallo, do you think Astrobiology is science? |
Well, my dictionary of biology doesn't even define the term, nor does it define the synonym, exobiology. However, I have a dictionary of science that does.
exobiology The branch of biology that deals with the search for extraterrestrial life and the effects of extraterrestrial surroundings on living organisms. Also called
astrobiology.
Ah! That muddied the field a bit, no? Given that, I think that astrobiology can be science, but I also think that great care must be given to how that science is conducted to prevent it from becoming pseudoscience.
Perhaps (and strangely) the Wikipedia is more informative. Wikipedia lists several research topics.
* What is life?
* How did life arise on Earth?
* What kind of environments can life tolerate?
* How can we determine if life exists on other planets? How often can we expect to find complex life?
* What will life consist of on other planets? Will it be DNA/Carbon based or based on something else?[1]
* What will it look like?
The first three are certainly science with nothing more than the standard dangers of falling into pseudoscience. After that, the topics become more and more speculative with less and less observational evidence.