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Originally Posted by ardeegee
Maybe-- and maybe not. All it proves is that it is possible for life that uses phosphorus to adapt to using arsenic. It doesn't prove that it is possible to start with arsenic in the first place. (There may or may not be some block to that-- we still don't know.)
Either way, I don't think this says much of anything about Life As We Do Not Know It, because I don't expect life out past the snow line to be even remotely like life on Earth-- it is like saying that, because we can put snow chains on a Mazda, this proves that there can be Mazdas on Pluto.
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It's interesting, though, in that this is the first practical demonstration of any form of life that appears to be able to get by with arsenic in place of phosophorus, and shows that life COULD evolve with other biochemical compositions that those found on Earth. Of course, you're absolutely right in saying that it says nothing about such lifeforms actually existing, but the mere possibility of their existance is intruiging. As if complex arsenic chemistry were to be detected spectroscopically in a place like Titan, that would be a real "smoking gun"...