MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Seriousness Nasa discovers a New form of life?

kennyc · 12-02-2010, 05:06 PM

A different type of DNA is what they are claiming. It would truly be unique and groundbreaking if true.... See:

Arsenic-Based Microbes Challenge Chemistry of Life
By ROBERT LEE HOTZ

Researchers on Thursday said they had created microbes that "very likely" use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life.

Force-grown in the lab, the bacteria use the notorious poison to replace molecules of the element phosphorus in critical parts of their working biology, including in the spiral backbone of DNA, which is a crucial component for all known life, the researchers said. By depending on an element so toxic to normal life, the microbes are a living demonstration of the exotic substances that alien biochemistry might, in theory at least, use on other worlds.

"It is building itself out of arsenic," said geo-microbiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon at NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey, who led researchers from eight federal and university laboratories conducting the experiment. "All life we know is the same biochemically, and this is a little different. It is suggesting there is another way to be alive."

Researchers today said they had created microbes that "very likely" use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life. Lee Hotz has details.

The researchers conceded, however, that by themselves these odd microbes don't prove yet that there is a fundamentally different basis for life on Earth. "It is beginning to open the door a crack to possibilities," she said.

Several independent experts were convinced that these unusual organisms were not so far out of the ordinary. "This is an interesting curiosity, a novel discovery but not a paradigm-breaking one," said New York University chemist Robert Shapiro, an authority on DNA and the origin of life who was not involved in the project. "It is a cousin of known living things that has some peculiar habits."

Rest here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...897300342.html

and from FOX:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...ia/?test=faces

And the Science News article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1202140622.htm

12-02-2010, 05:06 PM	#1
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,922 Karma: 119747553 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2 & PW, Onyx Boox Go6	Nasa discovers a New form of life? A different type of DNA is what they are claiming. It would truly be unique and groundbreaking if true.... See: Arsenic-Based Microbes Challenge Chemistry of Life By ROBERT LEE HOTZ Researchers on Thursday said they had created microbes that "very likely" use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life. Force-grown in the lab, the bacteria use the notorious poison to replace molecules of the element phosphorus in critical parts of their working biology, including in the spiral backbone of DNA, which is a crucial component for all known life, the researchers said. By depending on an element so toxic to normal life, the microbes are a living demonstration of the exotic substances that alien biochemistry might, in theory at least, use on other worlds. "It is building itself out of arsenic," said geo-microbiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon at NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey, who led researchers from eight federal and university laboratories conducting the experiment. "All life we know is the same biochemically, and this is a little different. It is suggesting there is another way to be alive." Researchers today said they had created microbes that "very likely" use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life. Lee Hotz has details. The researchers conceded, however, that by themselves these odd microbes don't prove yet that there is a fundamentally different basis for life on Earth. "It is beginning to open the door a crack to possibilities," she said. Several independent experts were convinced that these unusual organisms were not so far out of the ordinary. "This is an interesting curiosity, a novel discovery but not a paradigm-breaking one," said New York University chemist Robert Shapiro, an authority on DNA and the origin of life who was not involved in the project. "It is a cousin of known living things that has some peculiar habits." Rest here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...897300342.html and from FOX: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...ia/?test=faces And the Science News article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1202140622.htm Last edited by kennyc; 12-02-2010 at 05:14 PM.