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NASA Discovers New Life! (on Earth)

#1

Hylian

Hylian

NASA Finds New Life (Updated with Pictures)



Hours before their special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. This changes everything. Updated.



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.




The new life forms up close, at five micrometers.


But not this one. This one is completely different. We knew that there were bacteria that processed arsenic, but this bacteria—discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California—is actually made of arsenic. The phosphorus is absent from its DNA. 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.



Even closer, showing their internal structure.


No details have been disclosed about the origin or nature of this new life form. We will know more today at 2pm EST but, while this life hasn't been found in another planet, this discovery does indeed change everything we know about biology. I don't know about you but I've not been so excited about a bacteria since my STD tests came back clean. And that's without counting yesterday's announcement on the discovery of a massive number of red dwarf stars, which may harbor a trillion Earths, dramatically increasing our chances of finding extraterrestrial life. [NOS—In Dutch]
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I for one am super excited over this announcement :)


#2

Dave

Dave

See? Pollution is a good thing! If it wasn't for the wastewater from this site the life would not have been able to grow.

I've always said that our definition is pretty narrow and egocentric. It's like people who believe in a God but at the same time limit what that being would have the capacity to do based on their own primitive viewpoints.


#3



Chibibar

This is pretty cool. What does our local forum biologist view on this?


#4



Kiff

This is amazing! The fundamental dogma of what constitutes life has been shattered much like the DNA to protein dogma was with the discovery of retroviruses. Phosphorus is the major component of the DNA backbone, as well as the source of energy that fuels our cells. That they've discovered bacteria that utilizes arsenic is akin to theories of carbon being replaced by silicon in an alien species. The major difference is these arsenic utilizing bacteria exist!


#5

Baerdog

Baerdog

I, for one, welcome our new bacterial overlords.


#6

Hylian

Hylian

Baerdog said:
I, for one, welcome our new bacterial overlords.
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#7

Denbrought

Denbrought

So, time to nuke that lake and eradicate those xenos then.


#8

Baerdog

Baerdog

Wouldn't it be more effective to use Head and Shoulders?




#9

ThatGrinningIdiot!

ThatGrinningIdiot!

I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?


#10

drifter

drifter

Well, manipulated might be a little strong, but yeah, it doesn't seem entirely natural.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Still, in a way it's even more amazing. It's almost like an example of movie evolution.


#11

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
If the bacteria can survive, thrive, and multiple with the arsenic in it's DNA, that still proves that it's a possible building block of life and that life COULD exist with it. Even if it was genetically engineered that way, it's existence (assuming it's not faked and it can breed like that) still shows us that life is not defined by our own narrow terms.


#12



Chibibar

drifter said:
Well, manipulated might be a little strong, but yeah, it doesn't seem entirely natural.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Still, in a way it's even more amazing. It's almost like an example of movie evolution.
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hmm.. so basically mutation?


#13

drifter

drifter

A better article

NASA's Newly Discovered Arsenic-Loving Bacteria Are Fascinating, but Not Aliens [Updated + Video] | Popular Science


#14



Kiff

ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand how amazing it is that the bacteria utilize arsenic as the part of the DNA backbone, replacing phosphate. This ultimately rocks one of the foundations of what we understand as life. It doesn't matter if the bacteria were manipulated experimentally, or discovered. It's actually both. It proves that organisms can exist using elements other than the already established ones that define life.


#15

Espy

Espy

Yeah, even I'm not a huge science buff but I get that this is pretty awesome.

Life, can, and does, exist in ways we never knew about.

BOOF.

I think we are so used to our sci-fi that we just assumed that right? Now we actually know that.


#16

Far

Far

There seem to be a lot of people in the comments saying "well duh every sci-fi movie/game says that aliens would be built of different elements then us. Why weren't they looking for this stuff already?". What they all seem to fail to realize is we've never had any concrete evidence supporting this before so searching for life on other planets based on that wouldn't have made sense.

Essentially, we know life can exist under our circumstances and parameters so the best chance that we had before of finding more was to look for things that were similar to us. With this finding, even the one difference, arsenic instead of phosphorus being used as a building block, it means that if one variation is possible, apart from the one we've come to know and previously thought to be the only way life could form, then really any number of variations is possible.

The same would apply to finding even one other type of life form on any other planet. At present we, on earth, are the only known forms of life in the universe, from our perspective anyway. If we were to find evidence of even a single cell, mathematically it only makes sense that there would be more. Basically one instance, earth, is a special case, but even just one more life form opens up a universe of possibilities.


#17

ThatGrinningIdiot!

ThatGrinningIdiot!

Kiff;456939][QUOTE=ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand how amazing it is that the bacteria utilize arsenic as the part of the DNA backbone, replacing phosphate. This ultimately rocks one of the foundations of what we understand as life. It doesn't matter if the bacteria were manipulated experimentally, or discovered. It's actually both. It proves that organisms can exist using elements other than the already established ones that define life.[/QUOTE]

There's no part of my post where I try to minimize this discovery, and I understand the magnitude that this new process of life poses. I was only making a query to the people here before I wanted to create a more solid opinion of this subject.


#18

Piotyr

Piotyr

Today's XKCD, which I laughed about:


Mouseover: According to a new paper published in the journal Science, reporters are unable to thrive in an arsenic-rich environment.


#19

IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Denbrought said:
So, time to nuke that lake and eradicate those xenos then.
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Do not suffer the xeno to live. We must purify it for the Emperor!



#20

strawman

strawman

ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
They found living bacteria inside an arsenic rich lake. It is unclear whether these bacteria incorporated arsenic into their structures, but they could at least survive in an arsenic rich solution.

The scientists placed the bacteria into an even more highly arsenic solution, deprived them of phosphorus, and those that survived did so because they used arsenic in their DNA lattice rather than phosphorus.

Whether they manipulated them more or less than this I do not know. But insofar as I can tell, all they did was change the environmental conditions in which the organisms lived and reproduced.

It still fundamentally changes our view of DNA.


#21



Chibibar

First Lady Puffinstuff;457150][QUOTE=ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
They found living bacteria inside an arsenic rich lake. It is unclear whether these bacteria incorporated arsenic into their structures, but they could at least survive in an arsenic rich solution.

The scientists placed the bacteria into an even more highly arsenic solution, deprived them of phosphorus, and those that survived did so because they used arsenic in their DNA lattice rather than phosphorus.

Whether they manipulated them more or less than this I do not know. But insofar as I can tell, all they did was change the environmental conditions in which the organisms lived and reproduced.

It still fundamentally changes our view of DNA.[/QUOTE]
I still think it is pretty neat considering that arsenic is poisonous to most life as we know it (except for this bacteria).

Of course I don't think we'll see any "mutant" humans swimming in arsenic pool anytime soon and drink it for tea.


#22

strawman

strawman

Chibibar;457154][QUOTE=First Lady Puffinstuff;457150][QUOTE=ThatGrinningIdiot! said:
I've been reading some of the comments, while I won't place great emphasis on them. There is a rather sizable amount of people suggesting that the scientists have deliberately manipulated the bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
They found living bacteria inside an arsenic rich lake. It is unclear whether these bacteria incorporated arsenic into their structures, but they could at least survive in an arsenic rich solution.

The scientists placed the bacteria into an even more highly arsenic solution, deprived them of phosphorus, and those that survived did so because they used arsenic in their DNA lattice rather than phosphorus.

Whether they manipulated them more or less than this I do not know. But insofar as I can tell, all they did was change the environmental conditions in which the organisms lived and reproduced.

It still fundamentally changes our view of DNA.[/QUOTE]
I still think it is pretty neat considering that arsenic is poisonous to most life as we know it (except for this bacteria).

Of course I don't think we'll see any "mutant" humans swimming in arsenic pool anytime soon and drink it for tea.[/QUOTE]

Maybe arsenic based humans would be poisoned by phosphorus. So much for eating bananas.


#23

grub

grub

What about the people in San Pedro de Atacama?
Up until recently (when they built a water filtration plant) their water contained almost 60 times the recommended amount of Arsenic?
They have developed an immunity to it over the years.

San Pedro de Atacama: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article


#24

strawman

strawman

A well written critique of the science articles being written about this:

It's not an arsenic-based life form : Pharyngula


#25

Cheesy1

Cheesy1

Yep, more about possible bad science by NASA on this "discovery":

Scientists poke holes in NASA’s arsenic-eating microbe discovery


#26

Hylian

Hylian

Cheesy1 said:
Yep, more about possible bad science by NASA on this "discovery":

Scientists poke holes in NASA’s arsenic-eating microbe discovery
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