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Originally Posted by T@T
NASA fails. No new info at all. It was shown August 30th on Morgan Freemans "threw the wormhole" EP-5.
Felicia Wolf Simon was the scentist who discovered it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thor
I wouldn't say NASA fails, more like this shows you how many people watch anything science related, I mean who has time to learn when dancing with the stars is on at the same time!  |
No Fail here.
Felicia Wolf Simon is the lead author on the Science Express article published Dec 2 online reporting these findings (
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1197258). She works with NASA and US Geological Survey. I did not see the press conference though I suspect it was to mark the official publication of their results.
As expected they are much more reserved in drawing conclusions and speculating on the significance of their findings in the Science paper compared with the Morgan Freeman video.
The work is very interesting. They report that the bacterium is able to grow in a high arsenate low phosphate environment. They also determine that the organism incorporates arsenate into many biomolecules including proteins, lipids and DNA. However, they do not have any actual structure.
Though these findings are not the E.T. that some people were speculating (or hoping for) it importantly broadens our knowledge on how life can adapt to survive. Yes, we already know that life can thrive in the strangest of places (see Edmontonians and Archae) and these organisms adapt. These bacterium seem special in their ability to overcome a chemical problem. The toxicity of arsenate stems from its close chemical resemblance to phosphates. Arsenates are readily incorporated into biomolecules in place of phosphates, however, the corresponding arsenates are much less stable and breakdown faster. Hence, the problem for humans/other organisms that rely on the stability of phosphates and lack coping mechanisms to deal with the arsenates. The question is then how do these organisms cope with the change in chemistry?