NASA Discovers New Life

[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.

 

[Frotality]

so what i choose to get from this is that NASA thinks there are aliens made of poison ready to kill us with their mere presence.

who would have thought the eventual scourge of humanity could be fought with bananas.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

BBBBUUUUUULLLLLL CCCCCCRRRRAAAAAAPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot express my ANGER at this mountain of pathethic, vile words they call a significant discovery in words!

It is utterly pretentious and naive to assume that just because all life that we knew of required water, or had certain elements composing their bodies that all life in the UNIVERSE does!

As a 10 YEAR OLD CHILD I scoffed at NASA taking any minute signs as water as a sign of life, and ignoring everything else! I had wrongly assumed that they had enough COMMON SENSE to look further!

This embarrasses, no, shames, no, DISGUSTS me that we spent millions of dollars and over 45 years, to come to a conclusion that I MYSELF HAD MADE YEARS AGO!

Ugh, I am so enraged right now, I need to go maim something. (In a video game, mind you, so don't go send SWAT teams on my ass please.)

/END RANT

EDIT: before you call me obionxius and the like, read my response to those claims in the below posts.

Basically what I'm thinking right there, minus the rage, NASA hate and narcissism.

Seriously though, its pretty damn annoying when you hear on TV/radio/whatever,
"WATER DISCOVERED ON SOME ROCK. MEANS THAT THERE IS MOST DEFINATELY LIFE THERE FOR SURE!"

...uhh so?

I personally wasnt expecting anything extraterrestrial, in fact I was expecting this, and this is what we got...which sucks.

Oh yeah, and if anyone actually sees this, quit replying to that Calumon guy.

 

[Aethren]

Calumon: I wonder if they can prove I exist?

I'm sure they can, just step into this lovely van over here and I'll take you to them!

 

[BehattedWanderer]

But, realistically, this isn't that new.

It's totally new, and scientists are pretty excited about it.
I don't know if you understand that it isn't simply surviving off of arsenic, but is MADE OF arsenic, something previously never seen. It is in its DNA. It totally redefines what our understandings of the building blocks of life are, and gives us a reason to search for life outside of what we previously thought a habitable environment could be.

Yes, I did say I understand that. But elemental supposition is not new for me. I have been dealing with it's effects for three years, in collaboration with a biomedical implant project. Understanding things that can form bonds to bones is part of what I do. Watching a Calcium phosphate matrix try and grow into a metal splint means you have to learn to predict a few things. Arsenic behaves like phosphorous in certain atomic respects, so it's not that hard to fathom a supposition. We've seen things like this with carbon and silicon, niobium and chromium, nickel and iron, and quite a few other elemental pairings. That it's the first example in our extremely limited search field that has seen yeild? Whoo, it's awesome. That we haven't thought of looking in places where an atomic supposition might occur seems like a bit of a shortsighted moment on our part.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I've heard that this bacteria also uses arsenic to build it's DNA. In normal DNA, the nucleotides are kept together by a P-sugar , but this one uses arsenic. NO OTHER organism managed to do that.

I'm a bio-medical-sciences student, so I find this news very interesting. It's amazing how much there is possible withing living organisms.

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

I share your enthuisiasm

 

[Digikid]

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.

Only if you believe in that evolution bullcrap.....which I do not for humanity. However I digress as that is for another topic. I admit that the scientists needed this information to give them a much needed kick in the head. They got it. Lets hope they smarten up more and open their minds a bit more......if that is possible.

 

[Aeshi]

I love how everybody was expecting fully sentient aliens or something similar (apparently the fact that something like that couldn't be covered up or hidden apparently never occurred to them)

 

[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.

Only if you believe in that evolution bullcrap.....which I do not for humanity. However I digress as that is for another topic. I admit that the scientists needed this information to give them a much needed kick in the head. They got it. Lets hope they smarten up more and open their minds a bit more......if that is possible.

This has absolutely nothing to do with evolution. The fact that a form of life,a ny form of life, can survive with ARSENIC, an impossibly toxic chemical, as a key part of it's reproductive/life cycle, changes how we understand the requirements for life. If an organism can subsitute a poison for phosphorus, who's to say what else could be subsituted by other organisms? Maybe a creature that respirates using methane, or is silicon-based rather than carbon-based (Hortas!!).

This has nothing to do with evolution; it makes it so that scientists realize the fact that life can exist without what we used to deem the keys to life; phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.

 

[geizr]

NASA Discovers New Life

Despite the scientists' enthusiasm and excitement, it's clear that this is also quite possibly a foothold situation, heralding the beginning of the end of human hegemony as the very planet that sustains us is slowly transformed into a hostile, unlivable world. Air pollution? Global warming? Camouflage, my friends. The enemy is already among us.
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What's up with this last statement? Yellow-journalism? Pandering sensationalism to create link/hit bait? Whatever it is, it's unnecessary and shameful, in my opinion. Set a better example next time, please.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Why, are your kids watching?