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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 1651 Views
that is TOTALLY inappropriate - 02/12/2010 04:58:47 PM 857 Views
Of course there is... - 02/12/2010 05:02:30 PM 864 Views
I saw, I'm just not in the proper habit yet - 02/12/2010 05:35:33 PM 968 Views
Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 05:07:49 PM 935 Views
Re: Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 10:32:56 PM 779 Views
It's confusing, that's for sure. - 03/12/2010 02:01:11 AM 770 Views
lol, or maybe not - 09/12/2010 07:49:19 PM 1144 Views
So the movie Evolution was real! - 02/12/2010 05:24:16 PM 866 Views
Nice reference, but not quite. - 02/12/2010 10:32:04 PM 807 Views
Thanks for clearing that up - 02/12/2010 11:23:36 PM 916 Views
Wow. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:32:08 PM 488 Views
I love how it was found in a massively polluted lake - 02/12/2010 05:35:22 PM 804 Views
The answer to your question is: Pretty damn cool. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:33:54 PM 468 Views
Goddamnit I am SO PISSED that I have a meeting at 2!!! - 02/12/2010 05:50:21 PM 758 Views
I won't pretend I know enough about biology to understand the impact of this - 02/12/2010 06:26:24 PM 919 Views
It's like finding a type of rock that eats laughter - 02/12/2010 06:51:15 PM 768 Views
I think I had an ex once that was made of arsenic. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:10:57 PM 440 Views
Maris? *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:33:14 PM 483 Views
Well you are made of poison, so that makes sense. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:39:09 PM 440 Views
Curse you, poetic justice! Curse you! - 04/12/2010 03:38:37 AM 957 Views
So, is it an alien? - 02/12/2010 07:19:49 PM 910 Views
I don't see why it couldn't be natural - 02/12/2010 07:22:49 PM 811 Views
They haven't mentioned anything saying it's not from Earth, I think - 02/12/2010 08:03:44 PM 926 Views
It was funded by NASA, I think - 02/12/2010 08:15:15 PM 952 Views
lols. *NM* - 02/12/2010 08:17:40 PM 458 Views
The bacteria in question is part of a known lineage - 02/12/2010 08:07:34 PM 1147 Views
see my note below - 02/12/2010 08:13:35 PM 918 Views
Maybe - 02/12/2010 08:23:16 PM 848 Views
it could be there are some in the lake naturally - 02/12/2010 09:00:42 PM 767 Views
Huh! I must have missed that part. *NM* - 02/12/2010 09:05:15 PM 442 Views
No it isn't! - 02/12/2010 07:39:34 PM 922 Views
I really didn't understand that, either. - 04/12/2010 10:44:51 AM 936 Views
So, apparently, this bacteria doesn't use arsneic for its DNA in its natural state? - 02/12/2010 08:06:02 PM 820 Views
While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 09:04:22 PM 815 Views
Re: While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 10:34:34 PM 751 Views
It's interesting, but not completely shocking - 02/12/2010 08:08:46 PM 997 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 960 Views
It's much more than an educated guess. - 02/12/2010 11:59:18 PM 993 Views
You can't "know" from this distance. - 03/12/2010 03:13:05 AM 743 Views
Why not? - 03/12/2010 04:42:15 AM 999 Views
obviously you have not learned to look at the back label on the car *NM* - 04/12/2010 07:04:42 PM 415 Views
Yes, we can. - 04/12/2010 06:04:48 PM 1164 Views
The problem probably is with me. - 04/12/2010 08:00:56 PM 816 Views
No, they aren't. - 04/12/2010 10:01:25 PM 834 Views
Depends on how you view evidence, no? - 05/12/2010 04:50:11 AM 1063 Views
There are correct and incorrect ways to view evidence. - 05/12/2010 05:42:41 AM 770 Views
Are you baiting me to bait you? - 05/12/2010 06:41:49 AM 1003 Views
I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:26:39 AM 1000 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM 794 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:56:43 PM 974 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM 932 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 09:18:51 PM 852 Views
Okay. - 06/12/2010 11:22:44 PM 1009 Views
I watched that and was very intrigued - 03/12/2010 01:31:29 AM 693 Views
It's neat, but I object to the circus act - 03/12/2010 02:52:46 AM 946 Views
yah, and it's kind of shooting themselves in the foot anyways - 03/12/2010 09:10:21 AM 810 Views
xkcd - 03/12/2010 10:35:24 AM 970 Views

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