Tuesday, 21 December 2010
-
New Life Form Found on Earth
I don't know if you have heard this, but science just got real. Recently, a bacteria was found in a salty lake that defies everything modern science has ever thought possible. This bacteria can substitute one of the six previously "essential" elements needed for life to exist. This is HUGE NEWS!The bacteria uses Arsenic, a poison, in place of phosphorus to live. Until now, scientists claimed that for life to exist on Earth, the life form in question has to use either carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur or phosphorus to exist. No example has EVER been found that defies this rule of biochemistry. I know what you're thinking, "Who gives a shit?" Well, this little discovery has opened a whole bunch of new questions as to what can be possible.
For one, this life form indicates that life could have begun and ended many more times than we thought possible. Some speculate that this bacteria has been around before Earth had oxygen!
Think of it like this, if our ancestry can be traced back through a tree of life, this bacteria indicates a whole different species of tree. Life can exist outside our known understanding, also exciting news for alien enthusiasts everywhere.If this bacteria can use such a harsh element to live, who knows how many planets and moons it can exist on. Previously we all thought life could only exist if the planet had water, an atmosphere, was the right distance from a star, etc. This shatters that notion, making it now possible for life to exist in some of the most inhospitable places in the Universe.
Imagine a world where these arsenic based life forms can thrive (a place radically different than our planet). What happens when they start to grow larger and more complex?
Damn science is cool.
What do you think about this breakthrough?
RecommendRelated Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to mancouch's Mancouch Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in mancouch's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: mikeyjefferson
- About Me: axe about me
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 74 Views: 0 146363 Comments: 0 1578 View all posts by mikeyjefferson
Comments (17)
I remember learning about the things that are essential for life in high school and wondering how the hell anyone can know for SURE that absolutely every living thing in the universe requires X, Y and Z to exist. It never made sense to me. I think this is an awesome discovery. It gets us out of our ignorant little we-know-it-all boxes. We don't know shit, in the spectrum of things.
Very interesting, this pretty much confirms my notions that life probably does exist on other planets...I've always thought it was possible for other lifeforms to exist and thrive under different conditions.
*Xanga's Batman Out*
While the findings are intriguing, it's not something to get too excited about too quickly. The experiments themselves may not have been ironclad, and therefore the results may not be, either.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-critics-nasa-arsenic-bacteria.htmlAfter hearing hallucinations from fables before reading them, I'm no longer surprised by much, and I suspect there's a lot more on this planet than lets itself known to the eye of a human.
Humans have been tasked, I'm convinced. I'm away from the ocean, so I don't have my magical powers that I usually have. I don't think I could have taken much more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ftld7Ohojg&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXdtPp-ZTVMOiWzpT4HSIjZ9
Okay, so I love that you're so excited about this, because I love nerd-talk. It's the best, and the most fun.
I have no disagreement with how exciting this is, I just think that there's a lot of things that we don't know, so how is this a shocker? The only thing that bothers me about science: why do we need to know every fucking thing in the universe? And this is coming from a person that prizes knowledge. But seriously...the past's the past. And if there's no evidence to support it besides a bacteria...no meaning of a schedule or a drawing or a new bone to suggest anything (by all of these I'm saying there's no significance to it other than the fact that there was something before what we already knew (which is SO shocking because we're so effing fantastic, right?))...than whoopdy-doo. Ya know?
Interesting.
@Kelsicus@xanga - Whoopdy do indeed. It seems the more we know, the less we know in this instance. It amazes me the amount of money that is spent on simple "knowledge" that gets us no closer to knowing exactly what it is we want to know.
@raiderjester@xanga - I think true wisdom is best summed up by Socrates: It's knowing that you know nothing. Because you can't know everything. Knowledge is too vast. No one can know that much. It's about learning mostly.
Already heard about this..It's still interesting none the less.
Neato.
Not only is this story old, it is also based on faulty science, as @Huck - mentioned.
More posts please from you good sir!
Interesting stuff!
Not really strange. Simple microbes tend to bend the "rules" a lot. Classic example are diatoms which have silica cell walls.
why did they just now find it? Terrible scientists for not discovering this sooner ;)
@Hinase@xanga - Good quote.
@raiderjester@xanga - Ha, precisely. It's rather maddening how much money we waste on things that don't exactly make a difference.
A chemist from the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in
Gainesville, Florida, who works on alternative forms of DNA, is
sceptical that the bacteria really do contain arsenic. "I doubt these
results," he says, since in order to measure the modified DNA it has to
be put into a water-containing gel, which would rapidly dissolve any
arsenate molecules. Any hypothesis that arsenate might replace phosphate
in biomolecules must take this into account, he says.
@quasarglow@xanga - Lmao, I always thought the same thing. This is a cool discovery, though.
This is clearly a gift from God.