Frickin' awesome! A completely independent lineage of life on this planet. (If I'm reading the article correctly, it's stating that it's got no relationship to phosphorous-based DNA.) And it's on this planet.
If this planet can evolve life more than once, then surely there are plenty of other places out there where life has developed. I think our universe just got a bit more crowded today.
EDIT: Okay, reading another article, it's reading like the bacteria simply adapted to its environment and used arsenic to replace phosphorous. That makes sense too and is no less exciting, because it proves that life is sustainable with different elements.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
I wonder if Gizmodo is a girl cause that crack about STD was hillarious...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Gizmodo is a Web site. It says right under the picture that the author is that site's Jesus Diaz, whom I would assume to be male.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I've been there! I stood sweating, on the awful-smelling, fly-swarm covered shores of Mono Lake several years ago when on a trip back from Vegas.
It is, without a doubt, the single worst place I have ever been to- ever. Our tour guide (some grad student) was going on and on about it's ecological uniqueness and how it needs to be preserved as a national park- I kept thinking "Why? This place is a hellhole."
Shows what I know!
The lake's saline content makes these weird "sculptures" of salt in the lake itself and the only thing they knew that grew there was bacteria, which the swarms of flies ate, which in turn fed the swarms of birds which pooped in the lake (feeding the bacteria and microbes -and occasionally birds, being overcome from the fumes die and fall in- getting rapidly disolved by the lake).
It was a microcosm ecology- and I could appreciate that, but my leg wound was very bad back then and just being close to the lake was excruciating- by the time the tour was over, I was exhausted- and wanted nothing more than to be as far away from there as possible! I was shaking.
Gotta tell my pal Chris- he's the one that decided to go there in the first place!
I bet they finally get that National Park status!
I can not imagine going to work there every day (discovery not withstanding)- it's the bleakest, most depressing place on our planet....I think the bacteria swapped the phosphorus to arsenic as an attempt at mass suicide. Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I can not imagine going to work there every day (discovery not withstanding)- it's the bleakest, most depressing place on our planet....I think the bacteria swapped the phosphorus to arsenic as an attempt at mass suicide.
I take it you've never been to Swindon? Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
No..what a Swindon? Does it have thousands of flies and smell like salt, death and biirdshit? Must have high property values!
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
If only it was that pleasant.
Posted by Zipacna (Member # 1881) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: thousands of flies and smell like salt, death and biirdshit?
That would be a popular meal in Swindon! More classy than lobster stuffed with caviar!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Really- what sort of place has no glamor-shots of it's city? Even New Jersey has some nice (if misleading) photos of gardens or whatever.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
That would be because it's Dante's inferno incarnate and if they showed pictures then nobody would go there. It even has it's own five circles of hell.
Now that's a town that doesn't want people escaping once they're in. I escaped that thing once by following the postman. He seamed to know where to go.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
![[Wink]](wink.gif)