We are only a few steps away from the sandtrout that we need to get some Spice production going.
If we ignore the actual findings for a second - good lord, that scientist is annoying.
How is that overblown? Science has told us for hundreds of years that you need these very specific things to have life…and now we find out that’s not true. They didn’t create it, they just took it and plopped it down in some arsenic.
That’s definition of awesome and amazing. And changes the very definition of life as we know it.
No, it doesn’t, because it doesn’t prove that life can evolve without phosphorus. All they did was prove something that has been known for a while, which, to quote a character from Jurassic Park, is “Life will find a way.”
If they find a lifeform that has actually evolved without phosphorus, THEN it will change the definition.
Yes, a fictional character once said it, but it still nice to see it actually happen every once in a while.
So it can, we’ve determined…but since it start with phosphorus, it doesn’t matter? I disagree.
Just the fact that it CAN, means that it’s possible that life has developed in different ways on different places. The NASA guys seem to think the same thing…
Yes, they seem to think it’s possible. Which is a pretty big difference from “changes the definition of life as we know it.”
Now, if they find actual proof that it has happened… THEN it will change everything as we know it.
everyone is ignoring the important issue: if the aliens are based on arsenic, doesn’t that mean we can’t have sex with them?
I don’t understand the distinction, Charles. If it CAN happen, which they have proven, then it changes what COULD be true about life. Whether we can find something that evolved this way doesn’t matter. They’ve proven that something COULD do so.
russell, just use protection.
Kirk would still hit that
I fail to see what the big deal is, really. We already know of species that use concentrated acid for blood.
Well, that should be easy enough to compute. What’s the phosphorus content of semen? What’s the expected death rate for the equivalent quantity of arsenic? Presumably phosphorus is about as poisonous to most higher arsenic-using life forms as vice versa. But of course you can always practice safe sex if you find an attractive alien who wears old lace.
Here’s the big deal:
Only certain things work to allow the sort of combinatorial results we’ve determined are necessary for any reasonable (physics-likely) life to have a chance of forming. This is where you have to take off your “Anything’s possible!” unicorn glasses and actually deal with reality. There aren’t beings of pure thought floating in a nullspace orb somewhere, it just doesn’t work that way. Life forms from stuff that evolves from the basic element set, that’s just the way reality works.
That said, carbon is a great atom because it has so many wonderful binding points, only having four of its outer eight electron shell slots occupied. That’s why we look for carbon, it’s one of the best precursors of life. It’s also why we’ve always heard about “silicon-based life” because silicon is the next handy element that has such a configuration. Add hydrogen for general catalysis of every damned thing (why we look for water,) other trace elements to round out some reasonable configurations (this is where the phosphorus/arsenic thing comes into play) and you have an environment that has a one in umpty trillion chance of going all lifey. Or at least combining into bigger molecules and chemicals that can then bump around until you get some sort of replicator like clay, shake for a billion years, see what pops out.
so finding another element/compound that can take a fundamental place in the complexity cycle is a pretty big deal, it expands possibilities as far as known configurations that might work.
I think the big deal is that the bacteria was found at Mono Lake, one of my favorite places in the universe!
If some funky form of life was ever going to exist, it was destined for that place. :-)
If you think “science” has been telling us all along that you need phosphorus mandatorily to have life, you haven’t been listening to science very often.
Ironically, I was hoping this WAS about Siliconoid (nearly carbonless) lifeforms when I first learned it was an earth-bound “discovery”.
Now what we would be great is if they’re able to run millions of geenrations to let evolution take it’s turns in a totally Phoshoruos-free environment, and have every last atom of Phopshorous removed from those bacterim. For the scientists working on this it will certainly be fun. I’m quite jealous.
I’m sure you say this as you inject frops with mutant Phosphorusless cells and mount lasers on their backs.
In related news, our roboshuttle is back from a seven month orbital mission that nobody is talking about.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013590727_mysteryspacecraft04.html