NASA discovers arsenic-born organisms, search for life gets broader parameters

If you were hoping NASA was going to announce the very first tweet from an extraterrestrial being, sorry to break your heart — it is astrobiological , but the findings are actually borne of this rock. Researchers in Mono Lake, California have discovered a microorganism (pictured) that uses aresnic instead of phosphorous to thrive and reproduce. The latter, as far as human life is concerned, is a buildng block of life along with carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, integral to DNA and RNA. Arsenic, meanwhile, is generally considered toxic to life as we know it. In other words, NASA’s proven that life outside of Earth can be made with components different than our own. That sound you hear is a thousand light bulbs popping up as science fiction writers everywhere conjure up brand new super villains. The press conference is still going on, we’re listening in and will let ya know what else we hear. NASA discovers arsenic-born organisms, search for life gets broader parameters originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on December 2, 2010. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry