Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
Not a "new form of life" in that it is something unrelated to life as we know it. It is a member of the proteobacteria that has figured out a way to live using arsenic in the place of phosphorus in some (or many? or all?) places where it is normally used. An important finding, but no new kingdoms will come from it.
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/...d-proteins.ars |
Its importance, as far as life elsewhere in the universe is concerned, is that it opens up the very real possibility of life based on arsenic rather than phosphorus in places such as Saturn's moon Titan.