Via Towleroad
At their conference today, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce that they have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacteria uses arsenic. All life on Earth is made of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.
But not this one. This one is completely different. Discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California, this bacteria is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible. While she and other scientists theorized that this could be possible, this is the first discovery. The implications of this discovery are enormous to our understanding of life itself and the possibility of finding beings in other planets that don't have to be like planet Earth.
No details have been disclosed about the origin or nature of this new life form. We will know more today at 2pm EST.
The piece is originally from Gizmodo
UPDATE: Here's a post-conference article about what was found.
2 comments:
This was an amazing discovery JP. It broadens our definition of life and hopefully will give us insight into other places(outside the normal mode of thought) life might exist.
But I think it was a bit trumped up, Kyle: on one hand, it seemed that NASA had discovered a creature made of arsenic, but then in other places, I read that they simply were able to make bacteria that consumed arsenic. So I don't know.
And, anyways, I've watched Starman so many times, I don't need anymore convincing that there is life on other planets. :)
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