NASA-Funded Research Discovers New Life...In California

[OnePimpTiger]

A while back, there was a discussion about life on other planets and I brought up the idea that scientists are misguided in their search for it because they are looking for things that are necessary for life as we know it on Earth to exist, but life elsewhere may follow different rules. I searched a little, but I couldn't find the thread. Well, as it turns out:

NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical

NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."

Just another example of science having to rethink what they "know."

[avstars]

The aliens are here...

[andrewhoya]

Mono Lake... I'd love to live around there.

Anyways, that's a great discovery.