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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 1729 Views
that is TOTALLY inappropriate - 02/12/2010 04:58:47 PM 941 Views
Of course there is... - 02/12/2010 05:02:30 PM 946 Views
I saw, I'm just not in the proper habit yet - 02/12/2010 05:35:33 PM 1039 Views
Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 05:07:49 PM 1007 Views
Re: Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 10:32:56 PM 842 Views
It's confusing, that's for sure. - 03/12/2010 02:01:11 AM 843 Views
lol, or maybe not - 09/12/2010 07:49:19 PM 1216 Views
So the movie Evolution was real! - 02/12/2010 05:24:16 PM 928 Views
Nice reference, but not quite. - 02/12/2010 10:32:04 PM 874 Views
Thanks for clearing that up - 02/12/2010 11:23:36 PM 986 Views
Wow. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:32:08 PM 517 Views
I love how it was found in a massively polluted lake - 02/12/2010 05:35:22 PM 858 Views
The answer to your question is: Pretty damn cool. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:33:54 PM 499 Views
Goddamnit I am SO PISSED that I have a meeting at 2!!! - 02/12/2010 05:50:21 PM 830 Views
I won't pretend I know enough about biology to understand the impact of this - 02/12/2010 06:26:24 PM 985 Views
It's like finding a type of rock that eats laughter - 02/12/2010 06:51:15 PM 834 Views
I think I had an ex once that was made of arsenic. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:10:57 PM 472 Views
Maris? *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:33:14 PM 510 Views
Well you are made of poison, so that makes sense. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:39:09 PM 486 Views
Curse you, poetic justice! Curse you! - 04/12/2010 03:38:37 AM 1021 Views
So, is it an alien? - 02/12/2010 07:19:49 PM 981 Views
I don't see why it couldn't be natural - 02/12/2010 07:22:49 PM 891 Views
They haven't mentioned anything saying it's not from Earth, I think - 02/12/2010 08:03:44 PM 999 Views
It was funded by NASA, I think - 02/12/2010 08:15:15 PM 1012 Views
lols. *NM* - 02/12/2010 08:17:40 PM 481 Views
The bacteria in question is part of a known lineage - 02/12/2010 08:07:34 PM 1215 Views
see my note below - 02/12/2010 08:13:35 PM 986 Views
Maybe - 02/12/2010 08:23:16 PM 927 Views
it could be there are some in the lake naturally - 02/12/2010 09:00:42 PM 831 Views
Huh! I must have missed that part. *NM* - 02/12/2010 09:05:15 PM 467 Views
No it isn't! - 02/12/2010 07:39:34 PM 995 Views
I really didn't understand that, either. - 04/12/2010 10:44:51 AM 1005 Views
So, apparently, this bacteria doesn't use arsneic for its DNA in its natural state? - 02/12/2010 08:06:02 PM 887 Views
While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 09:04:22 PM 892 Views
Re: While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 10:34:34 PM 830 Views
It's interesting, but not completely shocking - 02/12/2010 08:08:46 PM 1061 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 1029 Views
It's much more than an educated guess. - 02/12/2010 11:59:18 PM 1094 Views
You can't "know" from this distance. - 03/12/2010 03:13:05 AM 808 Views
Why not? - 03/12/2010 04:42:15 AM 1075 Views
obviously you have not learned to look at the back label on the car *NM* - 04/12/2010 07:04:42 PM 443 Views
Yes, we can. - 04/12/2010 06:04:48 PM 1236 Views
The problem probably is with me. - 04/12/2010 08:00:56 PM 881 Views
No, they aren't. - 04/12/2010 10:01:25 PM 901 Views
Depends on how you view evidence, no? - 05/12/2010 04:50:11 AM 1135 Views
There are correct and incorrect ways to view evidence. - 05/12/2010 05:42:41 AM 836 Views
Are you baiting me to bait you? - 05/12/2010 06:41:49 AM 1080 Views
I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:26:39 AM 1076 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM 851 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:56:43 PM 1048 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM 1012 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 09:18:51 PM 929 Views
Okay. - 06/12/2010 11:22:44 PM 1083 Views
I watched that and was very intrigued - 03/12/2010 01:31:29 AM 755 Views
It's neat, but I object to the circus act - 03/12/2010 02:52:46 AM 1008 Views
yah, and it's kind of shooting themselves in the foot anyways - 03/12/2010 09:10:21 AM 897 Views
xkcd - 03/12/2010 10:35:24 AM 1051 Views

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