[Nuke]

all this really tells me is that life can be a little bit more selective of its chemistry than we once thought. these germs have been here for many millennia if not longer, it just took our incompetent asses this long to find it. and we didnt exactly have to go very far to get to it. hell, they used this lake in an eastwood film. weve been pumping water out of this lake and into la for 90 ****ing years and no one thought to dip a test tube in the water.  humans disgust me.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

When I first saw this I thought it was a joke.  They had this info in a program on the Science channel months (if not longer) ago.  Guess it's only news when NASA is involved. 

[General Battuta]

When I first saw this I thought it was a joke.  They had this info in a program on the Science channel months (if not longer) ago.  Guess it's only news when NASA is involved. 

No, what they had was information about bacteria that ate arsenic. That's peanuts compared to this discovery.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Well someone needs to tell CNN because they reported that they discovered bacteria that ate arsenic. 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/02/nasa.extraterrestrial.life/index.html?hpt=T1

Scientists have discovered a form of bacteria that can thrive on arsenic -- an element generally considered toxic -- dramatically expanding both traditional notions of how life is sustained and the range of where it might be found in the universe, NASA funded-researchers said Thursday.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, science writing sucks. The discovery here is not just thriving on arsenic but the fact that they use arsenic in place of phosphorus, which was considered one of the six indispensable elements of life.

[IronBeer]

Bad ass. I'm taking college biology right now- as many have already pointed out (just gonna join the chorus here), using arsenic in place of phosphorous is HUGE. Just about everything, the DNA, the metabolic pathways, the cell membrane, so many things are very different! And incidentally inimical to most other life forms by mere composition.

[Kolgena]

Man, phosphorylating proteins sounds nice, but arsenylating proteins just sounds retarded.

At least, that's the impression I got off of reading one of the articles about this. Traces of arsenic were found in various cytosolic and membrane proteins, likely replacing the role of phosphate groups as the protein switches.

[Scotty]

Pic related (and I find it slightly humorous, to say the least)

[Nuke]

Pic related (and I find it slightly humorous, to say the least)

epic win

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Man, this opens up many more possibilities for extraterrestrial life, doesn't it?

And could Vasudans be silicium-based instead of carbon-? There's enough sand on their planet

[Colonol Dekker]

Vasudans are poo based.

[Klaustrophobia]

it's really cool that they actually found this, but it doesn't really change anything.  there was always the possibility of "organic" systems that use other elements.

[Turambar]

it's really cool that they actually found this, but it doesn't really change anything.  there was always the possibility of "organic" systems that use other elements.

but now there's proof!

[Pred the Penguin]

Very intriguing...
Wonder how it replaces the function of phosphorus.

[General Battuta]

an xkcd

edit: oh never mind

[General Battuta]

Okay, apparently there's some backlash going on now, and it appears that there's some evidence (though nothing clinched yet) that the whole arsenic-based DNA thing was a false alarm.

[Mongoose]

Boooo...and I had just managed to get really excited over this after watching an episode of "Through the Wormhole" on Science Channel. Seriously, if you ever want to get psyched about something, just listen to Morgan Freeman narrate it.

[Ravenholme]

Wait holy **** this is jesus piss on a pogo truck driver



and i thought this was going to be another 'black hole nearby*' discovery

It's not exactly new, there is whole lab of guys who have been replicating various primordial conditions and creating all sorts of weird DNA-role-fufilling structures, this is just our first confirmation that they weren't being innacurate with their tests.

Edit: Wait, backlash, I missed that.. can you toss me a couple of links Battuta? Sounds interesting.

[Klaustrophobia]

Boooo...and I had just managed to get really excited over this after watching an episode of "Through the Wormhole" on Science Channel. Seriously, if you ever want to get psyched about something, just listen to Morgan Freeman narrate it.

really?  honestly i find it droning.

and the one episode of it i've seen wasn't all that intriguing.  but maybe that was due in part to me being put off by the tone it was taking of "this hair-brained theory is absolutely right, and all the other hair-brained theorys are completely wrong.  no, we're not going to offer any evidence or explanations why." 

[MP-Ryan]

Y'know, you can usually trust a journal like Science.  Unfortunately, it seems the pooch may have been slightly screwed in this case.

http://www.slate.com/id/2276919/pagenum/all/

Disappointing.  If you're going to publish something like this, you damn well better make sure its accurate.