Cool - but I'm not confused.
Didn't they have a revelation when they discovered bacteria that thrived without oxygen?
As well as microbes and sea-cumbers that reveled in heat vents and plumes on the ocean floor?
They have known of bacteria that lives without oxygen for a long time. bacteria that live in anoxic (oxygen free or oxygen starved) regions are critical to the nitrogen cycle. The life in and around the oceanic plumes (as well as sulfur consuming cave bacteria) are significant because they depend ob a source of energy independent of the sun and photosynthesis.
Cool - but I'm not confused.
Didn't they have a revelation when they discovered bacteria that thrived without oxygen?
As well as microbes and sea-cumbers that reveled in heat vents and plumes on the ocean floor?
So I take it an arsenic-dependent (or based?) lifeform would be *so much more different* because arsenic is usually toxic to all these aforementioned forms of life?
Then why is it in apple seeds?
(unabashedly ignorant of the whole subject)
So I take it an arsenic-dependent (or based?) lifeform would be *so much more different* because arsenic is usually toxic to all these aforementioned forms of life?
Then why is it in apple seeds?
(unabashedly ignorant of the whole subject)
I think that if they do indeed announce that arsenic-based life is here on earth, it probably REDUCES the likelihood that life came to earth from space, because it means that abiogenesis isn't really that unusual.
Dr Lewis Dartnell said:“I would be really surprised if the bugs they’ve isolated actually incorporate arsenic into any of their key biomolecules as a substitute for phosphorus (in, for example, DNA or ATP) – I suspect that what they’ve got is a bug that is simply tolerant to the high arsenic concentrations, or possibly uses it somehow in its metabolism.”
Incorrect. Arsenic life does not provide evidence of a second instance of abiogenesis.
Incorrect. Arsenic life does not provide evidence of a second instance of abiogenesis.
They have known of bacteria that lives without oxygen for a long time. bacteria that live in anoxic (oxygen free or oxygen starved) regions are critical to the nitrogen cycle (denitrifying bacteria that converts nitrates into nitrogen gas) . The life in and around the oceanic plumes (as well as sulfur consuming cave bacteria) are significant because they depend ob a source of energy independent of the sun and photosynthesis.
NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.
Anybody know where the arsenic-based life rumor came from? Their press conference text doesn't seem to support it
If they found non-carbon-based life here on earth, its impact on astrobiology would be rather indirect. It would be odd to tout the finding of a radically new terrestrial life form as "an astrobiology finding" and there would be a great deal of more important applications than the search for extraterrestrial life. I'm getting more skeptical that the rumor mill is on target
The Telegraph confirmed it a few hours ago. NASA apparently released an overview to several media sources earlier today, but asked them not to break the story until a specified time. Additionally, the cast of speakers that NASA has lined up for the press conference tomorrow seems to suggest that, at the very least, it is something related to life forms living in Mono Lake in Yosemite National Park that have some sort of unique relationship with arsenic.
There might be many applications to fields unrelated to astrobiology; only time will tell. But since NASA is the one backing this research, it's their story to break and obviously they're going to play up the aspects of the story that are most relevant and interesting to them.
There are two threads on this subject. Shame most posters don't visit this forum more often.
The most prevalent chemical dissolved in vent water is hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs. This chemical is produced when seawater reacts with sulfate in the rocks below the ocean floor. Vent bacteria use hydrogen sulfide as their energy source instead of sunlight. The bacteria in turn sustain larger organisms in the vent community.
I posted this link on a sports forum, already has the Christians raging!
It was not my intent either, I just posted the link.
NASA is holding a press conference today at 2pm to announce a major finding in their research in astrobiology, and speculation is high the agency said the finding "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life."
The news has leaked now, and while the discovery is not extraterrestrial life, NASA has indeed uncovered an entirely new form of life that "doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living" on Earth
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