NASA Discovers New Life

[Flying-Emu]

Thats it? Big whoop de do /sarcasm.

If it is not biped and has space travel then it is not that important.

Good job showing your ignorance there.

This is HUGE. You may not give a rat's ass, but to anyone who has a fairly decent grasp of what were once called 'the fundamentals of life,' this is a big deal. A super big deal. Like, astronomically big deal (c wut i did thar).

This literally changes everything.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Very cool. Can't wait for idiots to use this as the new Herald of Armageddon for when the Mayan Calendar runs out.

"The microbes are breeding! Soon, we'll be breathing arsenic! We will all die!"

Uh, yeah. There are already trace amounts of Really Bad Shit in the air we breathe already.
Also, if our environment is already pre-conductive towards phosphorics, why are we worried about Arsenics breeding out of control?

...Sorry. I slipped a few months into the future for a second. I'm back in the present now.

 

[sooperman]

This is the big announcement? I recall this being on the Science Channel some months ago. It's neat to see further proof of something we already knew, but it didn't amaze me then and it doesn't amaze me now.

If we found a similar specimen on another planet, that's big news. This, though, is just another tiny step in documenting life.

This literally changes everything.

Gonna have to disagree with you. I can't imagine what this changes. Maybe we add arsenic to the list of the fundamentals of life, but nothing life-changing here.

 

[dalek sec]

I have to admit, this is really a huge let down. I know it wasn't going to be like the "aliens" on show's like Doctor Who or the Stargate shows but really? This is the huge thing you teased us all with? I'm sure it's a big deal but to me they really didn't explain why this is so special at all.

 

[Littlee300]

This is just the rising action. Next the mars colonist will discover the mass effect technology and we will use it to find methane based life on titan, have it evolve into a mars friendly skin and have it help the mar's colonist make mars more livable on. Then we discover Asari and commander Shepard is born o;

 

[Lancer873]

Being a future biochemist myself I have to say I THINK THIS IS SO INSANELY AWESOME! This doesn't just prove that they can replace phosphorus with arsenic, it also means that maybe some of the other supposedly necessary elements could be replaced! (Except hydrogen, there really isn't anything remotely similar to that...) Biology just got a whole new turn to it, this could mean so much, and after I get out of college, I could be part of it! =D

 

[Scabadus]

I honestly though this was going to be some sort of new battery for a mars rover, something like that. At best some sort of super powerful microscope or telescope that woud be moderatly cool but totally forgetable.

This though. Ohhhh boy!

 

[lumenadducere]

This is one of those things where I feel like it should've been common sense but due to the way science works it has to be proven before it can be assumed. I mean, why is it such a shocker that life can have traits and attributes that we don't know of, even down to its very molecules? The universe is a huge, huge place, and we don't exactly have complete knowledge of even our own planet. This shouldn't have been such a shocker.

 

[direkiller]

This is cool substantial and important and everything...but why is NASA studying a lake in California instead of, you know, space and stuff.

something to do with budget cuts i think.

 

[Callate]

It is kind of cool, but it's also without question a tad disappointing given how it was "teased". I was thinking along the lines of "patterned signal from outside our solar system that couldn't have been the result of a pulsar" or the like. This is more like "Our search for extra-terrestrial life has just been proven a tiny bit less hopeless."

 

[MrSmish]

Read this earlier. Now that we know that lifeforms based on other chemicals are possible, methane based lifeforms on Titan seem very possible.

Do you mean...Grunts?

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

This + Evolution + wishful thinking = Aliens.

I am very happy.

Better start getting the Head and Shoulders ready...

Hilarious. Are we going to give it a shampoo enema?

*I think we're both referencing the same movie, but I'm not 100% sure...

 

[Grayjack]

Read this earlier. Now that we know that lifeforms based on other chemicals are possible, methane based lifeforms on Titan seem very possible.

Do you mean...Grunts?

Obviously. What do you think I was referring to, single celled organisms?

 

[MrSmish]

Read this earlier. Now that we know that lifeforms based on other chemicals are possible, methane based lifeforms on Titan seem very possible.

Do you mean...Grunts?

Obviously. What do you think I was referring to, single celled organisms?

Maybe the Knnn.

 

[cerebus23]

I want to give those scientists a big piece of cake for finally realizing that life is far more complex and diverse and can exist anywhere given any opportunity. I mean how many omg life can live there??!! finds do we have to find before the actual shock of finding it is not a shock.

And i thought religions were slow on the uptake.....

The find itself is cool, the microbe would be a fascinating study, course there is alredy microbes in use to clean up toxic dumps and the like, clean "biomatter" out of carpets and etc. But this might open up some more creative uses.

Can't wait for humans to take it the next level and invent a carbon eating microbe and accidently unleash it on the world, now that would be the end of things.

 

[WrongSprite]

This is the big announcement? I recall this being on the Science Channel some months ago. It's neat to see further proof of something we already knew, but it didn't amaze me then and it doesn't amaze me now.

If we found a similar specimen on another planet, that's big news. This, though, is just another tiny step in documenting life.

This literally changes everything.

Gonna have to disagree with you. I can't imagine what this changes. Maybe we add arsenic to the list of the fundamentals of life, but nothing life-changing here.

I think you may be missing the point. What this means is that planets don't have to be like earth to support life, which slightly boosts that amount of planets that could have life on, don't you think?

 

[wammnebu]

This is the big announcement? I recall this being on the Science Channel some months ago. It's neat to see further proof of something we already knew, but it didn't amaze me then and it doesn't amaze me now.

If we found a similar specimen on another planet, that's big news. This, though, is just another tiny step in documenting life.

This literally changes everything.

Gonna have to disagree with you. I can't imagine what this changes. Maybe we add arsenic to the list of the fundamentals of life, but nothing life-changing here.

I think you may be missing the point. What this means is that planets don't have to be like earth to support life, which slightly boosts that amount of planets that could have life on, don't you think?

great now there are more planets to scan for, so maybe we should hop to looking at all of them rather than a lake in California. There are plenty of organizations that study the utter bizarreness of archaeabacteria, but Nasa is supposed to be in space

 

[grimsprice]

Read this earlier. Now that we know that lifeforms based on other chemicals are possible, methane based lifeforms on Titan seem very possible.

Except that there isn't enough heat energy to drive any kind of chemistry, there are pools of liquid fuel for gods sake. Thats like.... 250 degrees below zero F.

OT: Yeah, read this on Discovery News. Cool. Like. Cool.

 

[Scrythe]

I spent all day crossing my fingers that it wouldn't be another lame bacteria.

Then I got home and punched out my screen. Fuck you, NASA.