Yeah, okay, people have known about the Mono Lake bacteria for a while
now. But the latest paper in Science reports progress in understanding
the bacteria, and culturing it in the lab. It is an important
development. It is worthy of a NASA press conference. I think it does
enhance the possibilities of other life in the universe and maybe even
in the Solar System, which is awe inspiring. I say kudos to the authors
and NASA.
See the review in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19805-arseniceating-bacteria-point-to-new-life-forms.html
Interesting quote:
"Despite surviving on arsenic for a year, the bacteria would still
"prefer" to grow using phosphorous: biomolecules react more efficiently
in water and seem to be more stable when constructed with phosphorous
than arsenic. They only substitute arsenic if there is no alternative."
That doesn't surprise me, but I'll bet that a life form evolving in the
presence of arsenic that uses it from the get-go would not have this
tendency. Biological system are incredibly resilient and they often want
to return to their own pre-defined norm, sort of like plastic toothpaste
tubes with a memory for the shape. Or cold fusion reactions which, as
Pons said, have a kind of memory and want to return to the previous
power level after someone interrupts them. (Skeptics mocked him for
saying this, but many chemical reactions such as fire in a burning log
do the same thing so I don't see why they doubted it. If the NAE is
unaltered, why wouldn't the reaction return to the same level of activity?)
- Jed
