[the.crooked]

nasa found a microbe that can build its dna and rna with arsenic. that's pretty huge. just thought you might wanna know.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/..._chemical.html


NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

[the.crooked]

Are you people shitting me. We find a new form of life and no one comments on this? Do you not understand how important this is?

[Decyferon]

hahah crooked

I think it is a pretty amazing discovery, but then I thought if they were to find another life form then it wouldn't really have been carbon based, not that I had anything to back that up, just the different elements of the universe were bound to be able to support things other than carbon based life forms.

Makes you wonder what other stuff is out there, especially considering we are still discovering things on our own planet.

[Mercer]

This isn't all that shocking, I think the life forms living on the bottom of the ocean substituting chemical reactions from the vents for photosythesis are much more interesting.
Either way, anything they can find as evidence that life can be supported outside of earths normal conditions is good, just waiting for proof though.

[CALIgula]

pretty interesting.

we use ATP for energy, but instead of phosphorus it can use arsenic (which is lethal to most life forms)...but if you think about it, it makes really good sense..after all, aresnic and phosphorus are very chemically similar (look at where theyre located in column 5A on the periodic table).

i wonder if the arsenic group causes the dna of these microbes to alter its dna's double helix structure, and how this effects replication...seems to not make any difference.

this is just an example of how life forms adapt to their environment...after all, lake mono has abundant arsenic and not as much phosphorus...microbes probably adapted to these conditions over millions of years.

[TheoHuxtable..]

Interesting. Yes it is a big deal since the conventional wisdom was that all life required phosphorus as a building block, while these bacteria have none and have arsenic in its place.

Too bad it is only a discovery among single-cell organisms. I'd wonder how a more complex organism would look/behave with arsenic-laden DNA, or if the fact that arsenic only limits an organism to the single-cell form.

Here's the whole video of the NASA announcement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVSJLUIQrA0

[the.crooked]

The issue is not whether conceptually this was possible (as it had been a point of conjecture for quite a while), but that it was actually found. Science can't predicate full theories with out evidence to support such claims. This is that evidence, and it furthers the sciences of any extremophile (as Lorem mentioned).

It's not that' it is shocking, but that it's real. That's where the beauty and wonder of this finding comes in. That it occured, not that it was speculated.

Just sayin, people should be hyped. I mean honestly, a fair portion of the scientific community had given up on the notion of finding life outside the confines of how it currently is constructed. And while the life forms that exist around deep water vents are certainly interesting in much the same fashion, they all still maintain the same elemental make up that we do, where as this does not. So even then, in comparison, it's still pretty huge.

But whatevs, feel how you are gonna feel.

[Fist 666]

i think its fantastic.

and from what i've read its not an evolution within the species to replace phosphorus with arsenic, but that it never had phosphorous in the first place. meaning, that life beginning from the standard 6 blocks took place alongside life from a different set.

it might not be as extreme as a non-carbon form, but it still as crooked said, gives foundations to what were only theories.

[DeSent]

thats amazing good looking out crooked much appreciated

[bokesue]

This is weird that they just announced this when this information already aired on television earlier this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEoggrrokY

[CALIgula]

Originally Posted by fist 666 (View Original Post)

and from what i've read its not an evolution within the species to replace phosphorus with arsenic, but that it never had phosphorous in the first place. meaning, that life beginning from the standard 6 blocks took place alongside life from a different set.

oh really?
wow...that is actually pretty cool.
so essentially its its own clade.

[BELTOLEUM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddn3h...layer_embedded

[Maneki-Neko]

I love when they discover shit that contradicts what they teach me in school

like the whole carbon is the building blocks of living organisms
because we are so sure of everything now especially since most people
cant think for themselves and just accept what they are told

[toluene_causes_tumors]

wow spam bots that make more sense than my signature

[jiver]

this is incredible.

[lord_casek]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...based_life.php

http://www.slate.com/id/2276919/

[Cracked Ass]

This is cool, I'm always yay science when there's a breakthrough. One more fact, one more discovery on the heap of real things, rather than a bunch of religious drivel.
I'm not super amazed at the substitution of arsenic for phosphorus. I did some highschool science projects involving substitution of elements within compounds and getting similar reaction results for reactions involving the new compound.
Also, this doesn't counteract anything you learned in school. These are carbon based life forms that use arsenic rather than phosphorus - not arsenic-BASED life forms.