NASA press conference...aliens?

[Growler]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

I heard this company is interested in them for their Bio-Weapons Division...

In that case, i say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I keep thinking of the Star trek line "It's life Jim ,but not as we know it"
Ok so this changes the goal posts for extraterrestrial life ,if arsenic can replace phosphorous then the rest of the building blocks can probably be changed as well - Look's like the old golden age scifi writers with the really weird alien life forms may have been close to the mark

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by darius359au

I keep thinking of the Star trek line "It's life Jim ,but not as we know it"

Oberon beat you to it...

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Oberon beat you to it...

Bugger...

I'd be more interested in the comments from the Life Form in question.

"Jed, the Ugly Bags of mostly Water are back."

"Ignore them Saddie. You know they're missing Arsenic and everyone knows only intellegent life forms have Arsenic."

"But Jed, how do we know they're not intellegent?"

"Saddie, They didn't know we could exist! How smart can they be?"

[razark]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Oberon beat you to it...

I lost count of the number of times someone said "not as we know it" or some close variation during the conference.

[DarkFish]

Translation:
Discovery: Bacterium able to survive arsenic

Nothing new, my mother-in-law has done so for years...

[Penguin]

It never ceases to amaze me what life forms there are to discover on the good ole Earth.

Also I am glad that nobody drained the lake so far where the bacteria was found and built a strip mall on it...

[TLAM Strike]

Now are they sure this life form originated on Earth?

Its so different from all other life that maybe its not from here.

... just saying...

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

exactly.

Probably going to release some new hypothesis that our search for biological organisms in the universe has been too focused, and needs to adapt to expanding and changing theories on what environments can support life.

One scenario is that they managed to get some sort of small plant organism to conduct photosynthesis using arsenic in place of the usual life sustaining compounds as we know them.

based on this, they will probably have the titan and mars groups give speeches about how mars contains certain elements that could behave similarly in those environments thereby creating organic compounds even if non-earthlike conditions exist.

thats what my money is on

by the way...


CALLED IT

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Now are they sure this life form originated on Earth?

Its so different from all other life that maybe its not from here.

... just saying...

well, ok the possibility is there.

I honestly don't think that anything would change when we would find alien life. It was the same when nations discovered other lands/continents where other people live. No big attitude changes happened.

While I am a big science nut, and very interested in the exploration of space, my point is that there is so much more to discover here which gets much fewer funding.
Or as the unknown Vietnam war participent said when Neil Armstrong spoke his famous words: "I wish this ****er would be down here"



@GR: credits to you! (Of course I am a lefty and so can't admit that someone is better than others, so I cannot send you the case of beer like I inrtended to - haha, jfwy !)

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Of course I am a lefty

we need a few of those around

[razark]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Now are they sure this life form originated on Earth?

Its so different from all other life that maybe its not from here.

... just saying...

I wasn't paying complete attention to it, but I believe what they had was bacteria they obtained from the lake. They removed it to their lab, where they grew it, but instead of giving it phosphorus, they gave it extra arsenic. The bacteria took in the arsenic and used it where it would have used phosphorus in its DNA.

So, it's really not all that different, it's only a proof of concept that life doesn't need everything we used to think it needed. Not as earth-shattering as "We found life off of earth" or even "we found life on earth completely unrelated to what we knew". But still an important discovery.

[Takeda Shingen]

It doesn't sound too different than the type of bacteria and organisms that we find around the toxic sea vents on the ocean floor.