[QUOTE=Zeke129;26447964]Can that happen? I just assumed this meant a definite second origin point of life.[/QUOTE]
arsenic is taking the place of phosphate
it's unlikely that the same structure could have emerged in two separate abiogeneses
[QUOTE=Zeke129;26447912]If you can't see how this is relevant to finding extraterrestrial life you should probably stop coming into science-related threads.[/QUOTE]
While I was mainly joking, it is a real question. I agree with you completely that this is the biggest finding of the year, and possibly the decade. I just never knew NASA was doing anything other than building rockets and Lunar Rovers.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;26447964]Can that happen? I just assumed this meant a definite second origin point of life.[/QUOTE]
It would take some pretty crazy circumstances, but as far as I know, there's no reason why it couldn't occur; it's just unlikely and I'm not quite sure on the mechanism.
I would think a secondary abiogenesis occurring recently (~1mya or less) is less likely. As is one that occurred around the time of the primary one that has gone undetected for so long, yet survived.
[editline]2nd December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=cani;26448043]While I was mainly joking, it is a real question. I agree with you completely that this is the biggest finding of the year, and possibly the decade. I just never knew NASA was doing anything other than building rockets and Lunar Rovers.[/QUOTE]
It's likely that a different organization made the finding and NASA are helping and are doing the announcement because of the relationship to extra-terrestrial life. But NASA does research a good deal at extremes of the Earth, as it's relevant to extra-terrestrial conditions.
I want pictures.
get some head&shoulders
[QUOTE=qwerty000;26448107]Evolution much?[/QUOTE]
Could have come from another planet...I doubt it originated here. Scientifically this makes no sense.
How come my dad knew about this two days ago? Was it leaked before the NASA press conference?
[QUOTE=mobrockers;26448122]How come my dad knew about this two days ago? Was it leaked before the NASA press conference?[/QUOTE]
Seeing as the press conference is in an hour.
Yes.
Since the leaking of US files and stuff, they are afraid of classified documents about alien life and ufos will get leaked. So they are trying to make news about alien life today etc.
I bet it was on Wikileaks first. :smug:
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;26448146]Seeing as the press conference is in an hour.
Yes.[/QUOTE]
I thought I read there was a press conference a couple hours ago.
So our own brand of life is either far more flexible than we thought, life's started on earth twice or alien life has arrived on earth? This is heavy stuff.
So does this organism still require oxygen or what?
[QUOTE=Dlaor-guy;26448275]So does this organism still require oxygen or what?[/QUOTE]
"Story at 2..."
We need to get David Duchovny on this.
NO YOUR ALL WRONG!!!1 IN TEH bEgINNING THER WAS GOD AND GOD ONYL!"""
Alien DNA in a Californian lake? They're crossing the border again aren't they?
WHAT THE FUcK!?!
man this is awesome
I think it was engineered by man! :o
They're lying to us!
[QUOTE=XxXKillErXxxX^2;26450608]NO YOUR ALL WRONG!!!1 IN TEH bEgINNING THER WAS GOD AND GOD ONYL!"""[/QUOTE]
Good job at failing to start a religion war.
"This organism has dual capability. It can grow with either phosphorous or arsenic. That makes it very peculiar, though it falls short of being some form of truly 'alien' life belonging to a different tree of life with a separate origin. However, GFAJ-1 may be a pointer to even weirder organisms. The holy grail would be a microbe that contained no phosphorus at all."
To be honest this is not very big at all. It's not a second case of abiogenesis. It's not even a case of a microbe that can use arsenic alone. It's more of the same "isn't evolution awesome" and "aren't extermophiles amazing" kind of discovery. It's the kind of hype that gives scientists' a bad public image. If physorg.com is right and this is what they are announcing it's going to be a huge letdown for everybody and with good reason. - neoabraxas on livejournal
Except it actually is quite big. This shows that life can occur with elements we thought were completely incompatible with life.
They said it was because Arsenic and phosphorus have almost identical atomic size/shape/mass.
-snip- Nevermind.
This is amazing... but it kinda bothers me that only now we are finding this out.
Did these bacteria evolved here on earth? Or did they arrive here not long ago?
"Alien DNA"? What the fuck are you talking about.
[QUOTE=bepassley;26447787]That's the first thing I thought of when I read arsenic.[/QUOTE]
Great, now we're going to need firetrucks filled with dandruff shampoo to kill these things...
Wait does this mean that oxygen, hydrogen, etc are not present at all or does it mean that just phosphorus is replaced by arsenic?
This is amazing but im still a little confused.
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