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12/02/2010 10:49:22 AM · #1 |
So, NASA is holding a news conference to discuss a finding that will have significant effect on the search for extraterrestrial life forms..
So, put your guesses in the hat here, and we'll see who was right (or horribly, funnily, wrong) in a few hours..
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My guess? I would imagine they have one of two announcements:
1. They have remotely detected signatures of life elsewhere
2. A planet in our solar system has been found to be very likely to harbor life..
of course they might have just decided to throw in the towel and start just referring to scripture instead of science, as it's much less expensive and budget cuts are ongoing... :) |
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12/02/2010 10:54:19 AM · #2 |
Finally they will reveal unquestionable evidence of Obama's birth place... Kenya
...then kick him out of office today :) |
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12/02/2010 11:09:10 AM · #3 |
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12/02/2010 11:13:45 AM · #4 |
1) We are NOT alone
2) They found intelligent life
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3) The invasion start in the next few days :-) |
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12/02/2010 11:17:15 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by robs:
1) We are NOT alone
2) They found intelligent life
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3) The invasion start in the next few days :-) |
nope -- they're still too far away -- the invasion starts in 2012, of course.
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12/02/2010 11:19:10 AM · #6 |
Wait wait... I know...
They found intelligent life outside NASA, and with their help it is now possible to send any space craft into the space without worrying about f..ing clouds.
yeah. |
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12/02/2010 11:23:01 AM · #7 |
Rumour is it is here on Earth and it's a form of bacteria that can live in an atmosphere heavy in Arsenic. Therefore life, but not as we know it, may already exist out there. So instead of looking for little green people we should be looking elsewhere :-)
Ooops  paynekj has that info in his link !
Message edited by author 2010-12-02 11:24:14. |
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12/02/2010 11:24:54 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by robs:
1) We are NOT alone
2) They found intelligent life
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.
3) The invasion start in the next few days :-) |
I, for one, welcome our new giant amoeba overlords...
:) |
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12/02/2010 11:28:30 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Sevlow:
Rumour is it is here on Earth and it's a form of bacteria that can live in an atmosphere heavy in Arsenic. Therefore life, but not as we know it, may already exist out there. So instead of looking for little green people we should be looking elsewhere :-) |
Booooriiiiing...
We want intelligent life forms, flying UFOs, space aliens that can communicate with us.
Screw bacteria (now that's impossible). I won't live that long to find a germ in some planet 46 thousand light years away...
That's as stupid as it sounds, and I don't know why the hell they come out for this now...
Oh, I know, how about just poking our shoulders to look elsewhere when government tries to F@$# us again for some reason... another bailout maybe... how about tax increase.
NASA... You SUCK big time... You and Obama can go to Kenya today, we'd be much better without you two.
Gosh, I am so angry :-\
My wristwatch is more intelligent than NASA... and it's not even electronic.
Message edited by author 2010-12-02 11:47:29. |
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12/02/2010 01:15:28 PM · #10 |
Oh crap! They discovered that I'm from Mars and they're coming to get me.
I see the shuttles circling my home.
My guess is that they found something that none of us will
understand exactly and our lives will continue until aliens
discover us and do the right thing; stop the parasitic infestation of the universe by humans.
:) |
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12/02/2010 01:33:11 PM · #11 |
Here's the news half an hour early.
Meet GFAJ-1, an otherworldly microbe that can grow on a legendary poison.
U.S. scientists are reporting the microbe, plucked from a California lake, can use arsenic to make proteins and other key molecules including DNA.
They say the arsenic operates as a substitute for phosphorus, long considered one of six essential elements of life.
The finding, which may have "profound evolutionary and geochemical significance," according to a report in the journal Science on Thursday, has the astrobiology world buzzing.
Bloggers had been busy speculating, based on NASA's plan to hold a news conference Thursday at 2 p.m. ET to coincide with the publication of the study, that scientists have found extraterrestrial life.
In reality they've discovered a very strange form of life, right here on Earth.
"It's pretty exciting," says Lyle Whyte of McGill University in Montreal, noting how the discovery gives a glimpse of how odd extraterrestrial life might prove to be. Whyte studies microbes living in sub-zero habitats in the High Arctic.
It also shows life can be much weirder than expected on this planet.
"If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected what else can life do that we haven't seen yet," says Felisa Wolfe-Simon, lead author of the Science report and a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Wolfe-Simon is known for thinking outside the box and has speculated for years that some forms of life might be able to use arsenic instead of phosphorus.
To test the idea, she and her colleagues collected microbes from sediments in Mono Lake, in the California desert, known for its high arsenic levels. Wolfe-Simon took them back to the lab and put them on an arsenic diet.
Over the next few weeks, microbes grew in the poisonous mixture and could be seen swimming around.
The scientists probed the tiny bacteria, dubbed GFAJ-1, and found arsenic inside its cells. Then they added a radioactively labelled version of arsenic, which revealed the arsenic was incorporated into the bacteria's proteins, fats and DNA. They also isolated some of the DNA, and report it contained arsenic.
The scientists say their work shows the bacteria "can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus," which is considered pretty profound. "There are no prior reports of substitutions for any of the six major elements essential for life," the team reports. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur have until now been considered the key building blocks of DNA, proteins and fats.
The reason arsenic works is that it is chemically very similar to phosphorus. That is also why arsenic is so toxic ΓΆ€” because cells attempt to use arsenic instead of phosphorus, gumming up the biochemical machinery in humans and animals, the researchers say. GFAJ-1 is more adaptable, but Wolfe-Simon reports that bacteria do grow better when supplied with phosphorus. But she and her colleagues say their experiments prove that phosphorus-free lifeforms can exist, and suggest such organisms may have existed in hydrothermal vents when life first took hold on Earth billions of years ago.
Milva Pepi at Italy's University of Sienna has describes the results as "convincing and exhausting." Others are a bit more circumspect.
"It looks like there are a few holes to fill," says McGill's Whyte, who would like to see more conclusive proof the arsenic has replaced phosphorus in the microbe's DNA.
"But overall it's a game changer," says Whyte. Like California's arsenic-laden Mono Lake, the Arctic is considered a proxy for the harsh conditions extraterrestrial life might be living in on Mars and elsewhere in the solar system.
Read more: //www.montrealgazette.com/technology/NASA+discovery+element+life/3917593/story.html#ixzz16yrTwuVj |
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12/02/2010 01:50:08 PM · #12 |
| great, that rules out rat poison as self defense. |
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12/02/2010 02:11:30 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
Booooriiiiing... |
Scientists have created a different form of life, in a lab. On the contrary, it's quite exciting.
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12/02/2010 02:23:07 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
Finally they will reveal unquestionable evidence of Obama's birth place... Kenya
...then kick him out of office today :) |
...and you think he's a Muslim too, right?
What if he was white and born in Kenya? Would it matter as much? :) |
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12/02/2010 02:25:15 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
Booooriiiiing...Screw bacteria...NASA... You SUCK big time...My wristwatch is more intelligent than NASA... \ |
Everything's amazing and nobody's happy. |
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12/02/2010 02:26:13 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
Booooriiiiing...Screw bacteria...NASA... You SUCK big time...My wristwatch is more intelligent than NASA... \ |
Everything's amazing and nobody's happy. |
Love that interview :) |
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12/02/2010 02:27:26 PM · #17 |
We seem like can't get our heads out of this world. When you (or anyone else) says NASA and press conference, we all waiting something out of this world, not a lab creation! This news should not be released with three days waiting press conference, but as normal news... If they do find same materials in some other place (planet), then you make it a big deal.
This is boring, this is stupid, and this is waste of time and money to make it that exciting.
really... Think about the things NASA did in 60s, 70s, and now... going backwards.
This news is not NASA's to release.
Bull Shit |
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12/02/2010 02:28:29 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by Jac:
What if he was white and born in Kenya? Would it matter as much? :) |
if that was the case he never would have been elected president.
Message edited by author 2010-12-02 14:28:42. |
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12/02/2010 02:30:20 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
This is boring, this is stupid, and this is waste of time and money to make it that exciting. |
How quickly the world owes him.... |
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12/02/2010 02:31:31 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by jeger:
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
Booooriiiiing...Screw bacteria...NASA... You SUCK big time...My wristwatch is more intelligent than NASA... \ |
Everything's amazing and nobody's happy. |
Love that interview :) |
He can sound like the idiots he's describing though and that takes away from his comedy. |
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12/02/2010 02:34:50 PM · #21 |
Originally posted by FocusPoint:
We seem like can't get our heads out of this world. When you (or anyone else) says NASA and press conference, we all waiting something out of this world, not a lab creation! This news should not be released with three days waiting press conference, but as normal news... If they do find same materials in some other place (planet), then you make it a big deal.
This is boring, this is stupid, and this is waste of time and money to make it that exciting.
really... Think about the things NASA did in 60s, 70s, and now... going backwards.
This news is not NASA's to release.
Bull Shit |
OK. Let me try. NASA is reporting this BECAUSE IF IT EXISTS ON THIS PLANET THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT IT EXISTS ELESEWHERE, AS IN ON ANOTHER PLANET.
:))) |
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12/02/2010 02:36:37 PM · #22 |
RELEASE : 10-320
From: //www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/dec/HQ_10-320_Toxic_Life.html
NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical
WASHINGTON -- 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."
This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.
Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.
Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.
"We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new -- building parts of itself out of arsenic," said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology research fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. "If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"
The newly discovered microbe, strain GFAJ-1, is a member of a common group of bacteria, the Gammaproteobacteria. In the laboratory, the researchers successfully grew microbes from the lake on a diet that was very lean on phosphorus, but included generous helpings of arsenic. When researchers removed the phosphorus and replaced it with arsenic the microbes continued to grow. Subsequent analyses indicated that the arsenic was being used to produce the building blocks of new GFAJ-1 cells.
The key issue the researchers investigated was when the microbe was grown on arsenic did the arsenic actually became incorporated into the organisms' vital biochemical machinery, such as DNA, proteins and the cell membranes. A variety of sophisticated laboratory techniques were used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.
The team chose to explore Mono Lake because of its unusual chemistry, especially its high salinity, high alkalinity, and high levels of arsenic. This chemistry is in part a result of Mono Lake's isolation from its sources of fresh water for 50 years.
The results of this study will inform ongoing research in many areas, including the study of Earth's evolution, organic chemistry, biogeochemical cycles, disease mitigation and Earth system research. These findings also will open up new frontiers in microbiology and other areas of research.
"The idea of alternative biochemistries for life is common in science fiction," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Until now a life form using arsenic as a building block was only theoretical, but now we know such life exists in Mono Lake."
The research team included scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in Menlo Park.
NASA's Astrobiology Program in Washington contributed funding for the research through its Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. NASA's Astrobiology Program supports research into the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth.
Message edited by author 2010-12-02 14:37:24. |
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12/02/2010 02:37:47 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by Jac:
...OK. Let me try. NASA is reporting this BECAUSE IF IT EXISTS ON THIS PLANET THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT IT EXISTS ELESEWHERE, AS IN ON ANOTHER PLANET.
:))) |
That's bull shit. There is no prove of it (other planets), and that what makes me very angry. You find something here, you don't make that much of a deal... You find it here AND on other planet, then make a big deal...
The rest, as i said, BULL SHIT |
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12/02/2010 02:42:16 PM · #24 |
| Without further funding, 60 million jobs will be lost, more or less. |
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12/02/2010 02:43:53 PM · #25 |
Originally posted by David Ey:
Without further funding, 60 million jobs will be lost, more or less. |
Is this what you think all about... funding NASA? Why am I funding something finds me germs in this world?
(if that's what you mean of course) |
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