NASA Discovers New Life

[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.
Permalink

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?

 

[newwiseman]

This lends credit to the theory that life can substitute any of the basic blocks with the next element up on the periodic table, because chemically they all behave is their series.

 

[zfactor]

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.

Actually, slowly freezing the solute of a bunch of chemicals actually makes the reacton go faster. The solution forms ice (frozen) crystals that push the other elements into microscopic groups, greatly increasing their concentration (only for a very small amount of it though). That is what they theorize happened on earth at some point, those small bunches formed DNA and what not faster than if left unfrozen. Heat does play a part (the molecules bounce around faster, making them hit other molecules and react more often), but so does concentration (which makes them so close together they inevitably bounce into eachother). The only way they would never react is to reach absolute zero, but good luck with that.

 

[zfactor]

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)

I know, everyone is sad that it is only arsenic based life (yeah, only life using an element toxic to other life). What excites scientists sometimes doesn't excite the public.

 

[samaugsch]

How the fuck is this new to the scientific community? Am I really the only person who was open to the possibility of organisms using different elements in their composition?

This isn't even the first time I've been struck dumb by the narrow view of typical science on this subject. For Christ's sake, all they ever look for when looking for "planets that could have life" are planets that could support carbon based life forms and other things unique to Earth, like that's the only possible option. As if there aren't more possibilities in the infinite expanse of the universe.

Where is your imagination Science? Where?

Maybe they're trying to limit the number of things in the universe that their feeble little minds can't comprehend.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

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!

Spoiler: You should have talked to Admiral Ackbar...

With Power Balance, You discard half the cards in your hand and I draw the same number of cards you discarded. Since you have six cards, you discard, and I draw three.

Now I have all 5 pieces of EXODIA!

Looks like I owned you.

By far, one of the geekiest posts I have done in a while, and I have a Digimon following me!

Calumon: Vans smell funny anyway. Why don't they just get a race car?

 

[FinalGamer]

WHA......AWWWWWWWWW MAAAAAAAN! I thought it was gonna be on one of Saturn's moons or something, dammit!

...but this IS an awesome discovery I must admit, it still keeps my validations solid about alien life out there.

 

[Patrick Dare]

I see a lot of people saying NASA has made false claims. From what I saw they never said they found alien life, they simply said they found something that would change the way we look for alien life.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

Thats it? Big whoop de do /sarcasm.

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

Well I can name a few unimportant things that suit that category.

Anyway, quickly! Destroy it! Its going to take over!

In yet other trains of thought, pretty cool...

 

[Ashcrexl]

oh, now that xkcd comic i read yesterday makes sense! also, silly journalists, nothing really cool ever happens in our mundane lives.