Question of the Day, December 3, 2010

[tehbeard]

Found out first from XKCD.

[http://xkcd.com/829/]

Have to say it's interesting, but not really special.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

With this, the religious arguments about Earth's conditions being 'perfect for life' is destroyed.
Of course, they won't understand this and will keep using the argument.

Since the thing was discovered on Earth, it really doesn't.

So they discovered a new life form on this planet? I don't see how that is exactly world shattering news.

Because the life form is made mostly of arsenic, and people thought that was impossible.

While it is a rather surprising that the life form is based on arsenic, there was never a rule that stated that all life forms had to be carbon based. That was just our assumption. And when I say 'our' I mean the greater scientific community. I was never under such an assumption.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

..
*poof*
and my post appears.

 

[emeraldrafael]

It would be nice if it had been from space. Thats my only gripe.

Other then that, thats really cool. Just imagine if humans could possess that ability, and further enhance it.

 

[Denamic]

With this, the religious arguments about Earth's conditions being 'perfect for life' is destroyed.
Of course, they won't understand this and will keep using the argument.

Since the thing was discovered on Earth, it really doesn't.

Like I said...

 

[CleverCover]

As long as it's not the First Contact War, I'll...like...glancing at the things. I don't think we can deal with finding a whole new species if we can barely deal with the guy three computer rows away.

It's cool that we finally found other life, really, but it's a startling smack in the face at how there's a difference between fiction and reality sometimes.

...They look icky!!! Eww, eww, eww, eww, eww!

But...if you can...Vulcans plzkthx.

 

[sms_117b]

My guess of a Nitrogen-life based bug (which went onto parodying Evolution) wasn't such a bad guess now was it!

 

[Rocketboy13]

Other:
I imagine it would be cooler if I did not think they had ulterior motives.
I bet they had this item for a good long time and held back this discovery so that they could renew interest in their institution just as the flow of capital starts to change.

 

[Macgyvercas]

It's incredbile and all, but the only acceptable nerd answer is "Hoping for Vulcans".

 

[snow]

I read some where that they knew of this stuff for over 5 years already, and that it was in some textbooks for school or something. I'm not sure if that's true or not though.

 

[tthor]

*snip*

I was never under the assumption that all life had to be carbon based. Granted, I'm no scientist, but I figured that, given the right conditions, life could develop anywhere and from anything. The remaining mystery is what sparks the creation of life under seemingly random conditions with seemingly random elements.

Carbon typically forms four bonds. This allows it to form essentially infinite chains (polymers, including proteins). The most obvious alternative to carbon for the basis of complex life is silicon which has similar bonding characteristics although it would be less stable.

Well the discovery of this new life form seems to support my theory, doesn't it.

i don't think that was quite what this guy was talking about. Your theory was that organic building blocks could be made up of pretty much anything; what this guy is saying is simply that based on the chemical structure of the elements, it is highly likely that any organic life in the universe will be almost all carbon or silicon based, based on its chemical structure. this is not to say that the other building block materials will also always be the same, but just that carbon or maybe silicon will almost always be the dominant element in these organic structures

 

[Exterminas]

So they discovered a new life form on this planet? I don't see how that is exactly world shattering news.

The punchline is that this bacteria uses an element for living that was never ever considered a possible basis for live.

Imagine we spend all years checking planets for certain elements first, to then look closer, for actual life. Without these elements, no life, we thought. Now we learn that we did wrong, because life can use other elements.

That's just like learing that we actually could have fueld cars with water, if we just bothered to try.

 

[laststandman]

This is seriously old news. We've known about extraterrestrial extremophiles for a while now. Even the fact that it thrives in arsenic is nothing spectacularly new. This isn't even NASA's field of expertise.
Honestly NASA's name was just tagged on this announcement to make people think that it could be new alien life forms. This is sad. Someone's just jerking off NASA when obviously there is no manned space program left. Screw the media for hyping this up like it would be intelligent aliens.
At least they knew how to snag audiences.

 

[Nouw]

I guess anyone who thinks this is stupid news has way too high expectations or isn't intelligent enough to understand how amazing this is.

Well I don't blame you, damn Predator picture!

I think this is amazing and a very big discovery! Rock on!

[sub]Pun unintended[/sub]

 

[no oneder]

It's good to know that there is something in the universe even more insignificant than you, I guess.

 

[AWDMANOUT]

I think it's neat. But I don't really grasp the mind-blowingness.

There's Nitrogen-based lifeforms in Star Wars... Why is this so surprising...?