NASA's Press Conference December 2 To Reveal "Astrobiology" Finding!!

Yes, the organisms concerned are bacteria, according to Dr. Wolfe-Simon. She even named them, but spoke so quickly that I didn't catch it. The key here is that these bacteria don't merely tolerate arsenic, but take it up into their very substance, DNA, RNA, and ATP, at least. The metabolism of these bacteria is reportedly normal. These do not appear to be extremophiles, at least in the usual sense that this term is normally used. The phosphorus atom is replaced with arsenic in the ester binding the genetic bases together. Ross

Originally posted by Croda
I'm not getting why people are blowing this off as a worthless announcement. This is more than an extremophile. This means that DNA can exist without Phosphorous.
What else can it exist without?

Absolutely!

So, we can now look at the previously known building blocks of life (i.e., carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur) and then look at the periodic table and see what could possibly replace these elements.

Rather than Carbon, perhaps ET's building block contains silicone or some other element in group 14 (of the periodic table of elements).

Rather than Hydrogen it could contain lithium or some other element of group 1.

etc...

Basically, we have always been looking for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur to investigate life. Whereas if we had found silicone, lithium, nitrogen, oxygen, arsenic and sulfur...we would have ignored it in the search for life. There now could be many different combinations of elements that could makeup alien life. That, my friends, is a "big deal".

NASA effectively said DNA was not the main building blocks of life - an argument it used to dismiss life on Titan and even Europa at stages. Mars too.

Breaking the status quo, assuming life must be carbon based can be dismissed. The possibilities could be beyond our wildest dreams. Bactria and macroscopic life could be widespread across the universe. If this brand of life is universal, than evolution towards intelligence is certain.

If we can have arsenic based life, why not Methane? (which NASA is asking regarding Titan). The "manual for life" is officially redundant. This is quite a major announcement, but sadly to intellectual for the philistine, celebrity idolising press.

This is, quite literally, a second Genesis on Earth.

reply to post by infinite


How does it make DNA not the building block of life? Aside, of course, that most basal life-forms tend to use RNA instead. I'm not saying that life forms can't have their replication and propogation based on something other than DNA, it just seems a bit of a jump from what I've found so far to say that DNA (or other nucleic acids) aren't the building block of life. The issue with phosphate (and thus replacing it with arsenic) would be BETWEEN deoxyriboses/nucleic acid complices, so...

In response to someone else (they have a name, I'm sure) other news, would the bacteria in question be Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii strain MHLE-1? Anaerobic, metabolises Arsenite to Arsenate (only in low oxygen conditions) to allow it to reduce nitrogen. Considering the salinity and alkalinity of Lake Mono, I stand by my definition of it as an extremophile (NB - I didn't say thermophile).

In a vain search for more info, I've found a 2010 study by one of Wolfe-Simon's 2009 co-authors, and an (inaccessible) 2009 article by the same co-author - does anyone have subscription to Geomicrobiology? - and Wolfe-Simon's 2009 co-authored paper, talking about metabolising arsenite to arsenate (in Journal of bacteriology, Zargar et al), alternative chemistry of life (in Geomicrobiology, inaccessible without cost - Oremland et al, 2009), and hypothetical posturing by Wolfe-Simon and some other people about alternative life chemistries.

The sooner a freely accessible version of the study discussed in the press-conference is online, I will be a lot happier.

reply to post by infinite

This is certainly an important discovery.

However, just to be clear here, this life is NOT arsenic-based instead of carbon-based; these arsenic-using critters are still carbon based life -- i.e. the arsenic still works in conjunction with carbon molecule chains. This life, though, uses arsenic the same way previously known "life" uses phosphorus -- and you wouldn't call us "phosphorus-based life".

...HAVING SAID THAT, this is truly a great discovery, and does in fact open up doors for us to begin looking for life in places we once thought life was impossible. If a creature on Earth can use something like arsenic in its life-processes, then perhaps a creature on Titan can use methane (although that Titan creature may still be carbon-based.)

However, I wouldn't be surprised if there exists out there somewhere (or even here on earth) something other than carbon-based life -- such as silicon-based life.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


reply to post by TheWill


Poor use of phrases on my behalf, I grant you.

As Wolfe-Simon mentions, the next logical steps would be to see if other organisms can do the same thing. However, as someone commented online - we might have to wait until we explore the Jupiter and Saturn systems' until we discover a possible "shadow biology"

reply to post by Aggie Man
Thank you Aggie-Man. The links you shared make the situation somewhat clearer. The bacteria concerned appear to be of an already known sort. That fact seems to indicate that this new discovery may not be part of a separate 'tree of life', as has been repeatedly suggested, unless the whole of the Holomonadaceae proteobacteria are also considered part of that separate 'tree'. The fact that these bacteria do well with arsenic, but not as well as with phosphorus suggests an adaptive mechanism based on life as we know it. Ross

This was a HUGE announcement..

What she said was life finds a way. This means that these microbes that use arsenic instead of phosphorus may not thrive and evolve into an intelligent life form on earth but on Titan or another planet microbes that use arsenic may be more ideal for life to evolve rather than using phosphorus. The microbe has the same metabolism so there's nothing stopping it from evolving the same way we have except for our environment.

On earth, arsenic based microbes don't use energy in an efficient way vs. phosphorus backed microbes. The opposite could be true on a place like Titan. Maybe phosphorus backed microbes on Titan never make it past microbes while arsenic backed microbes thrive on Titan and evolve into complex life forms.

This is a big deal and it destroys the dogma that life in the universe has to evolve in the exact same way it did on earth. This widens the net and this can just be the tip of the iceberg.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Oddly enough, the thought of the universe teeming with alien organisms whose body chemistrys are completely alien and incompatible with ours is a little bit daunting and a tiny bit scary.

Originally posted by MissSmartypants
Oddly enough, the thought of the universe teeming with alien organisms whose body chemistrys are completely alien and incompatible with ours is a little bit daunting and a tiny bit scary.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
This is certainly an important discovery.

True but I don't understand the hype from NASA This was posted February 22nd, 2009

Searching for Life on Earth
bytesizebio.net...


Photosynthetic Arsenic-using bacteria in Lake Mono, California

This life, though, uses arsenic the same way previously known "life" uses phosphorus -- and you wouldn't call us "phosphorus-based life".

Not sure I have seen some people with a GLOWING personality...

However, I wouldn't be surprised if there exists out there somewhere (or even here on earth) something other than carbon-based life -- such as silicon-based life.

Originally posted by Nicolas Flamel
My favorite part though was when one of the panelist mention silicon based life forms and even used the horta as an example. I think I've seen these on some pictures from Mars?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b4d375d9431c.jpg[/atsimg]

Yeah those 'nodules' are all over the place where Opportunity landed. Odd looking 'critter' too




But for some odd reason we have beed led to believe 'silicon based life' would be creatures made of stone. Why? Our skin is rubbery and resilient because of silicon.. we have silicon rubber and we can make some pretty nice 'lifeforms' out of silicon these days..

Silicon 'lifeform' (yes she is 'formed' out of Silicon )

Originally posted by zorgon

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
This is certainly an important discovery.

True but I don't understand the hype from NASA

This was posted February 22nd, 2009

Searching for Life on Earth
bytesizebio.net...

Photosynthetic Arsenic-using bacteria in Lake Mono, California

This life, though, uses arsenic the same way previously known "life" uses phosphorus -- and you wouldn't call us "phosphorus-based life".

Not sure I have seen some people with a GLOWING personality...

However, I wouldn't be surprised if there exists out there somewhere (or even here on earth) something other than carbon-based life -- such as silicon-based life.

Originally posted by Nicolas Flamel
My favorite part though was when one of the panelist mention silicon based life forms and even used the horta as an example. I think I've seen these on some pictures from Mars?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b4d375d9431c.jpg[/atsimg]

Yeah those 'nodules' are all over the place where Opportunity landed. Odd looking 'critter' too

But for some odd reason we have beed led to believe 'silicon based life' would be creatures made of stone. Why? Our skin is rubbery and resilient because of silicon.. we have silicon rubber and we can make some pretty nice 'lifeforms' out of silicon these days..

Silicon 'lifeform' (yes she is 'formed' out of Silicon

)

As usual, Knight, YOU debunk the NASA Liars!

This OLD NEWS, hyped today from a bunch of NASA genius, is a fraudolent NEWS.

Qustion: WHY?

This news is the proof that NASA lies and that the scientific world and MSM is in the hands of a bounch of Liars!

So NASA have explained a microorganism can survive in extreme environs, why did NASA do a bloody press conference?
Getting the worlds taste buds wet for a really juicy news story, yes it MAY be a big story to some but I remember reading a couple of years ago about organisms that go into hibernation when in space, and various other extremes so why is this one any different?
Why couldn't a MICRO BIOLOGIST do the press conference, so this to me means that ANY story that has to do with any kind of life , even singled celled life out in space now has to come through NASA?
NASA need to get their priorities straightened up, yes its life outside this atmosphere but its not really news conference material is it?
Just a page on their website would have been sufficient IMO.
They need to get back to the drawing board and unedit all the photos they've tampered with, and reveal the REAL news then MAYBE that would be worthy of a news conference..........

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
reply to post by PrimePorkchop

 

You think man knows about life creation.

Actually, no. I made no claim. I said we don't know

Well man does not know about life creation.

I know that

All man knows about creation is in the book God gave us.

While I believe that God inspired the premise of the Bible, it actually was written by men and is totally biased and untrue to the passion of God.

Where has everyone been, just inside a Frankenstein movie.

If by "Frankenstein Movie" you mean "reality" then, yes, i suppose so.

And who supplied all the sparks of life equipment, Tesla.

k

Don't think so, people should try Earth and see how life is created.
No one has figured that out.
ET life is too far away and no one will ever see it.
Writer's cramps won't set in for these scamsters but
one should be aware not to follow Illuminati scams.
There is only one life, ours, and there is no room for ET life,
its a movie by someone clued in long ago into whats happening.

If you're not interested in a conversation about ET, then why take part in a conversation about it?

To all appearances, life on Earth began in the seas. Arsenic is likely have been much more plentiful in the primordial oceans than phosphorus, due to undersea volcanic vents. Arsenic would have dissolved in the water and been readily available. It seems likely that life used arsenic first, and that phosphorus was a later substitution. It is believed that only after complex biochemistry developed that could extract phosphorus from rock, that this substitution could occur. Perhaps we should look to the undersea volcanic vents for arsenic using bacteria, if we wish to find that independent 'tree of life', that 'shadow biosphere' we are hearing so much of lately. Ross

reply to post by zorgon


Hi Zorgon, thanks for the cartoon. That scenario would certainly explain a lot. And it gives new depth to the phrase "consider the source".

Microbes eat up oil and lots pollutants as well as arsenic perhaps.
And where would the atoms go, into the DNA if usable or ejected as waste.
Projecting ET life forms is just ET myth payola from the Illuminate whose longtime
use of the cover for the unknown continues.
Bacteria at Mono Lake with arsenic is an Earth life form and nothing ET about it.
ED: Why does NASA wish to talk about ETs.
Proven phony years before Spielberg entrance into the field.
There is nothing to talk about, its all made up so why the initiative.
Done by Illuminati ET myth money so lie for money is like working honestly for wicked money ( Jesus, Luke 16).
Each to his own judgment cause we are all living under the rule makers.
I'll talk about how ETs exist along with everyone else.

Bacteria at Mono Lake with arsenic is an Earth life form and nothing ET about it.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


The point here is this....before this discovery it was believed that DNA could only be made up of a select group of elements, one of which is phosphorous. This bacteria has arsenic in it's DNA where phosphorous would normally be leading to conjecture that DNA could be made of any number of combinations of elements in the corresponding columns in the periodic table....theoretically. Meaning life could exist on planets that don't have the same elements that we have to have to exist.

reply to post by MissSmartypants


Do we know the entire microbe make up.
It might be on its way to reject the element which might have similar ether qualities to normal DNA.
Sure bring it on to how DNA and atoms work but you can't get ET life out of misfit DNA.
It will mostly likely die.
Did they reveal that.

reply to post by TheWill


Yes a surprising Earth life form.
Earth is full of life.
NASA biologists can look for all the quirky DNA they can find.
They won't tell you anything except the big lie aspect because the
true science of the ether has to be denied.
Still an interesting Mono Lake life form that might die elsewhere.