PDA

View Full Version : Arsenic based life found!


mr_smiles
12-02-10, 12:03
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/arsenic-bacteria-alien-life-101202.html

Pretty wild, the natural world is an amazing, always surprising place.
6933
12-02-10, 12:18
It will be interesting to see if it stands up to peer review and if it is replicateable.
mr_smiles
12-02-10, 12:25
It will be interesting to see if it stands up to peer review and if it is replicateable.

Hopefully we'll have more info once NASA makes their announcement.
panzerr
12-02-10, 15:31
This bacteria is still carbon-based, not arsenic. However, it does utilize arsenic which is unlike any other life form known to man.
6933
12-02-10, 16:38
Yep, it is still founded on C-H-O-N; but using As is new. Don't feel this shreds the old model. Just a tweak.
kwelz
12-02-10, 16:54
Life can develop in any environment. I am always amused when people talk about looking for earth like planets to discover life. You don't need an Earth like environment unless you are from Earth. You could have creatures that breath methane, or not at all. You could have a form of life that can't survive with water around or in sunlight, or without sunlight at all times.

Just because we evolved the way we did doesn't mean that is the only way to evolve.
panzerr
12-02-10, 16:58
Yep, it is still founded on C-H-O-N; but using As is new. Don't feel this shreds the old model. Just a tweak.

Agreed.
mr_smiles
12-02-10, 21:02
You fancy ****ers can say what you want, but the little bastards have arsenic in their DNA, they're arsenic based life for me :D Way cooler than some shit that's just arsenic tolerant these little ****ers live for the stuff... If it all turns out to be true and not just some big cluster **** of an error. It pretty much shits on what we know right now, the little bastards shouldn't even exist... Again unless some one screwed the pooch and got some funny results and some grant money. :sarcastic:

Okay, some of the shit I'm saying is for drama. But all in all it's pretty damn cool. Yeah it's not breaking all the rules, just shows what's possible if it turns out to be the case.
panzerr
12-02-10, 21:15
You fancy ****ers can say what you want, but the little bastards have arsenic in their DNA, they're arsenic based life for me :D

lol @ fancy ****ers
THCDDM4
12-03-10, 09:07
It is quite an interesting implication. I cannot wait to see the peer reviewed papers on the matter. If confirmed it will open the flood gates of biological possibilities.

How enigmatic and playful the universe is; and what a time to be alive contemplating it all...