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More Important Than Soccer: Completely new type of DNA discovered beetnemesis Send a noteboard - 02/12/2010 04:48:51 PM
Hours before their special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. This changes everything.

At their conference today, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce that they have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacteria uses arsenic. All life on Earth is made of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.

But not this one. This one is completely different. Discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California, this bacteria is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible. While she and other scientists theorized that this could be possible, this is the first discovery. The implications of this discovery are enormous to our understanding of life itself and the possibility of finding beings in other planets that don't have to be like planet Earth.

No details have been disclosed about the origin or nature of this new life form. We will know more today at 2pm EST but, while this life hasn't been found in another planet, this discovery does indeed change everything we know about biology. I don't know about you but I've not been so excited about a bacteria since my STD tests came back clean. And that's without counting yesterday's announcement on the discovery of a massive number of red dwarf stars, which may harbor trillion of Earths. [NOS—In Dutch]

Suck it, Qatar! But seriously, how cool is this?
I amuse myself.
Hooray for arsenic!
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More Important Than Soccer: Completely new type of DNA discovered - 02/12/2010 04:48:51 PM 1546 Views
that is TOTALLY inappropriate - 02/12/2010 04:58:47 PM 763 Views
Of course there is... - 02/12/2010 05:02:30 PM 746 Views
I saw, I'm just not in the proper habit yet - 02/12/2010 05:35:33 PM 871 Views
Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 05:07:49 PM 847 Views
Re: Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 10:32:56 PM 663 Views
It's confusing, that's for sure. - 03/12/2010 02:01:11 AM 669 Views
lol, or maybe not - 09/12/2010 07:49:19 PM 1045 Views
So the movie Evolution was real! - 02/12/2010 05:24:16 PM 755 Views
Nice reference, but not quite. - 02/12/2010 10:32:04 PM 706 Views
Thanks for clearing that up - 02/12/2010 11:23:36 PM 822 Views
Wow. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:32:08 PM 439 Views
I love how it was found in a massively polluted lake - 02/12/2010 05:35:22 PM 703 Views
The answer to your question is: Pretty damn cool. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:33:54 PM 418 Views
Goddamnit I am SO PISSED that I have a meeting at 2!!! - 02/12/2010 05:50:21 PM 676 Views
I won't pretend I know enough about biology to understand the impact of this - 02/12/2010 06:26:24 PM 831 Views
It's like finding a type of rock that eats laughter - 02/12/2010 06:51:15 PM 667 Views
I think I had an ex once that was made of arsenic. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:10:57 PM 401 Views
Maris? *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:33:14 PM 436 Views
Well you are made of poison, so that makes sense. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:39:09 PM 396 Views
Curse you, poetic justice! Curse you! - 04/12/2010 03:38:37 AM 850 Views
So, is it an alien? - 02/12/2010 07:19:49 PM 822 Views
I don't see why it couldn't be natural - 02/12/2010 07:22:49 PM 725 Views
They haven't mentioned anything saying it's not from Earth, I think - 02/12/2010 08:03:44 PM 822 Views
It was funded by NASA, I think - 02/12/2010 08:15:15 PM 855 Views
lols. *NM* - 02/12/2010 08:17:40 PM 405 Views
The bacteria in question is part of a known lineage - 02/12/2010 08:07:34 PM 1040 Views
see my note below - 02/12/2010 08:13:35 PM 821 Views
Maybe - 02/12/2010 08:23:16 PM 749 Views
it could be there are some in the lake naturally - 02/12/2010 09:00:42 PM 686 Views
Huh! I must have missed that part. *NM* - 02/12/2010 09:05:15 PM 390 Views
No it isn't! - 02/12/2010 07:39:34 PM 810 Views
I really didn't understand that, either. - 04/12/2010 10:44:51 AM 843 Views
So, apparently, this bacteria doesn't use arsneic for its DNA in its natural state? - 02/12/2010 08:06:02 PM 711 Views
While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 09:04:22 PM 725 Views
Re: While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 10:34:34 PM 662 Views
It's interesting, but not completely shocking - 02/12/2010 08:08:46 PM 895 Views
I don't understand why this is such a big deal. It always seemed common sense to me that there are - 02/12/2010 10:40:22 PM 850 Views
It's much more than an educated guess. - 02/12/2010 11:59:18 PM 899 Views
You can't "know" from this distance. - 03/12/2010 03:13:05 AM 662 Views
Why not? - 03/12/2010 04:42:15 AM 879 Views
obviously you have not learned to look at the back label on the car *NM* - 04/12/2010 07:04:42 PM 384 Views
Yes, we can. - 04/12/2010 06:04:48 PM 1045 Views
The problem probably is with me. - 04/12/2010 08:00:56 PM 716 Views
No, they aren't. - 04/12/2010 10:01:25 PM 734 Views
Depends on how you view evidence, no? - 05/12/2010 04:50:11 AM 965 Views
There are correct and incorrect ways to view evidence. - 05/12/2010 05:42:41 AM 665 Views
Are you baiting me to bait you? - 05/12/2010 06:41:49 AM 894 Views
I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:26:39 AM 884 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM 671 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:56:43 PM 873 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM 813 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 09:18:51 PM 764 Views
Okay. - 06/12/2010 11:22:44 PM 909 Views
I watched that and was very intrigued - 03/12/2010 01:31:29 AM 593 Views
It's neat, but I object to the circus act - 03/12/2010 02:52:46 AM 835 Views
yah, and it's kind of shooting themselves in the foot anyways - 03/12/2010 09:10:21 AM 713 Views
xkcd - 03/12/2010 10:35:24 AM 870 Views

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