Sagan Coined Carbon Chauvinism Term

American astronomer Carl Sagan coined the term "carbon chauvinism" to criticize the assumption that all extraterrestrial life must be carbon-based simply because life on Earth is. He argued that humans often project their own biology onto the rest of the universe and may fail to imagine organisms built from radically different biochemistries. The concept has since become a common caution in discussions about astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life.

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