Researchers discover unique, arsenic-based life form

[billwald]

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/U38ITL/OJF4AH/NR8X4E/6JVR9P/69NTN/B7/h

How did it get there?

We drove past Mono Lake in Oct. The lookout point is at about 8000 feet and Mono Lake is over 7000 feet. I get light headed over 6000 feet and the cruise control doesn't work right.

Less than 7000 years ago Noah's flood covered the Mono Lake lookout plus another feet of depth, flushing out any water in the lake, if the lake existed before the flood. How did a critter with arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA get there? This discovery is a BIG DEAL!

 

[Crabtownboy]

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/U38ITL/OJF4AH/NR8X4E/6JVR9P/69NTN/B7/h

How did it get there?

We drove past Mono Lake in Oct. The lookout point is at about 8000 feet and Mono Lake is over 7000 feet. I get light headed over 6000 feet and the cruise control doesn't work right.

Less than 7000 years ago Noah's flood covered the Mono Lake lookout plus another feet of depth, flushing out any water in the lake, if the lake existed before the flood. How did a critter with arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA get there? This discovery is a BIG DEAL!

I read the same article this morning. It is fascinating. I am not sure of all the ramifications, but certainly they are many. I hope more is published on this.

 

[Don]

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/U38ITL/OJF4AH/NR8X4E/6JVR9P/69NTN/B7/h

How did it get there?

We drove past Mono Lake in Oct. The lookout point is at about 8000 feet and Mono Lake is over 7000 feet. I get light headed over 6000 feet and the cruise control doesn't work right.

Less than 7000 years ago Noah's flood covered the Mono Lake lookout plus another feet of depth, flushing out any water in the lake, if the lake existed before the flood. How did a critter with arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA get there? This discovery is a BIG DEAL!

Isn't God wonderful?

 

[rbell]

It certainly proves how much we don't know.

All this time, we've had a set of elements that we just knew had to be present.

Throw that out now.

Of course....an animal that feeds on toxic stuff?

We've known for years about their existence.

They're called Junior High Students.

(it's a temporary phase)

 

[Crabtownboy]

To me this certainly raises the possibility of life on other planets. Who know how many types of life exist in ways we are not aware of and may never know about? God is not limited by our understanding. I wonder is carbon toxic to this newly discovered organism?

"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.
www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/as
trobiology_toxic_chemical.html

 

[rbell]

Not sure this is as incredible a find as we thought.

An simple organism that lives off of toxic material?

We've known about Keith Olbermann for years.

 

[preacher4truth]

Isn't this the raw material used to make Baptists?


:thumbs:

 

[billwald]

>I wonder is carbon toxic to this newly discovered organism?

Carbon is still the building block. Phosphorus is probably toxic to the new critter. Wonder if it could be used to clean old gold mining pits.

The claim seems to be that it has similar DNA to an existing critter but with arsenic substituted for phosphorus. If so it is an example of a new species evolving from an old species. It was gold mining that contaminated Mono Lake with arsenic in the first place so the critter can't be very old. Either evolution or God (or space aliens) recently planted the stuff. Or God is trying to "prove" evolution to humans.

 

[freeatlast]

>I wonder is carbon toxic to this newly discovered organism?

Carbon is still the building block. Phosphorus is probably toxic to the new critter. Wonder if it could be used to clean old gold mining pits.

The claim seems to be that it has similar DNA to an existing critter but with arsenic substituted for phosphorus. If so it is an example of a new species evolving from an old species. It was gold mining that contaminated Mono Lake with arsenic in the first place so the critter can't be very old. Either evolution or God (or space aliens) recently planted the stuff. Or God is trying to "prove" evolution to humans.

Well since there are no space aliens and God has already proclaimed creation to men that means that nothing evolves into a new species so that leaves adaptation.

 

[billwald]

You trying to irritate me, right? Or is that what they teach in genuine Baptist biology classes?