The investigation into the possibility of life extra-Earth is an eliminatory one, and nothing to do with guesswork. I'm picturing our proclaimed biology expert thinking of NASA scientists scratching their 'eggheads' and being baffled at not finding ET life, when that's the whole point. Not finding life in one particular environment means we've eliminated one type of environment in which to expect to find life. Examining why that should be further expands our knowledge of how life functions and better refines our methods of searching.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
