Topic: "The definition of life has just expanded" (Read 34153 times)

scarred · « **on:** 03 Dec 2010, 01:33 »

Shit's starting to go down in science.

It is pretty amazing.

est · « **Reply #1 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 01:48 »

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I want to still be alive when they find life on another planet. I don't give a fuck what it is, microbes, lichen, whatevs. Just something to show we're not the only ones out here.

SilentJ · « **Reply #2 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 01:51 »

God damn, I love science. Especially really incredible things like this. I always love reading about things like this because science is the kind of branch of study where, when a discovery is made that alters fundamental principles, the biggest intellectuals in the field are right alongside everybody else, going all "man, can you believe this?"

calenlass · « **Reply #3 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 01:54 »

Yeah, my friends and I were arguing this morning about whether this bacteria shit must be extraterrestrial (it mustn't). However, I am glad people are finally going "wait, you mean all life ever isn't necessarily carbon based?!?!

"

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #4 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 03:19 »

So goddamned cool

ImRonBurgundy? · « **Reply #5 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 03:28 »

d'awwwww

I wonder how this thing is going to be classified once they've officially scientifically described it and such.

jhocking · « **Reply #6 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 03:59 »

Quote from: calenlass on 03 Dec 2010, 01:54

"wait, you mean all life ever isn't necessarily carbon based?!?!"

Unfortunately these aren't the silicon-based lifeforms you'll sometimes see in science fiction. Still, very amazing.

Nodaisho · « **Reply #7 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 04:09 »

We have found a lot of those in California, though.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #8 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 04:38 »

Quote from: jhocking on 03 Dec 2010, 03:59

Unfortunately these aren't the silicon-based lifeforms you'll sometimes see in science fiction. Still, very amazing.

Silicon-based life only really works at temperatures and pressures radically different from the surface of the earth. It's conceivable such life could live deep down in the earths crust, but if it's weird enough we might have trouble even recognising it as life.

Lines · « **Reply #9 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 04:52 »

This is awesome!

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #10 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:09 »

I think we need to declare war on these aliens as soon as possible.

jhocking · « **Reply #11 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:13 »

Quote from: KharBevNor on 03 Dec 2010, 04:38

if it's weird enough we might have trouble even recognising it as life.

I once new a girl who wrote a story called "Little Green Men" about an alien spaceship landing but all that came out was some weird slime that scientists stuck in canisters and forgot about. It was a clever little story.

Inlander · « **Reply #12 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:24 »

Quote from: jhocking on 03 Dec 2010, 05:13

new a girl

Oh, Joe.

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #13 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:28 »

He's finally loosing his mind.

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #14 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:29 »

Theirs no hope.

Inlander · « **Reply #15 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:36 »

Maybe the arsenicoforms are controlling his mind.

Inlander · « **Reply #16 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:37 »

Maybe they're coming for you next.

jhocking · « **Reply #17 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:37 »

Lately I've noticed a dramatic increase in the number of typos in emails and other things I type. I think I spend less time double-checking my typing these days, which is oddly satisfying to me. It's like, not having enough time to check my spelling validates me as a person.

Joseph · « **Reply #18 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:42 »

I guess when you have less and less time left on this Earth, it becomes important to work quickly.

Inlander · « **Reply #19 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 05:48 »

Quote from: jhocking on 03 Dec 2010, 05:37

It's like, not having enough time to check my spelling validates me as a person.

Validates you as an arsenic-munching bacteria drone, you mean.

David_Dovey · « **Reply #20 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 06:08 »

Quote from: ImRonBurgundy? on 03 Dec 2010, 03:28

d'awwwww

Jeez guys, we're getting all riled up about a few slices of olive loaf?

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #21 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 06:16 »

Arsenic based sludge discovered, will marry before Joe Hocking.

tHEfOOL · « **Reply #22 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 09:19 »

hehe i saw this and showed it to my mom and she was like huh? what's so cool about that. she completley missed the point. i think it is great that we now have proof that life doesn't have to be made of very specific mix of atoms and molecules

Ozymandias · « **Reply #23 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 09:34 »

Well, no, it's just that the very specific mix is a little bit more inclusive. All known life still requires carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur. It's just that we now have proof phosphorous can be replaced with arsenic. It's really cool, but not destroying the fundamental basis of organic chemistry here.

tHEfOOL · « **Reply #24 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 11:34 »

i know, it's just that this proves that there are other ways life could evolve, for all we know there could be another planet where all life evolved with arsenic instead of phosphorous, and that would be pretty coo but deadly for us

Johnny C · « **Reply #25 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 11:58 »

call me when there's a life form that subs out phosphorous for old lace

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #26 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:03 »

I'm predicting the first appearance of phosphorous-free life fetishists very soon, if they aren't here already

"oh baby watching you photosynthesize that poison gets me so hot. My microscope is getting all foggy"

tHEfOOL · « **Reply #27 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:21 »

hooray for rule 34!

Buttfranklin · « **Reply #28 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:31 »

Arsenic is poisonous to humans, so... Does this mean I can't eat it?

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #29 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:32 »

Quote from: Johnny C on 03 Dec 2010, 11:58

call me when there's a life form that subs out phosphorous for old lace

Can't work out if this is a Runaways joke or not.

scarred · « **Reply #30 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:33 »

I thought it was a play on Arsenic and Old Lace?

pwhodges · « **Reply #31 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:36 »

Dear old Terence Rattigan... - I did lighting for that as the house play one year at school (i.e. a very long time ago, using real rheostats).

~~tommydski~~ · « **Reply #32 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 12:40 »

Quote from: scarred on 03 Dec 2010, 12:33

I thought it was a play on Arsenic and Old Lace?

It is but it can be both.

I was going to make a Runaways joke but I couldn't work out if JC had already made it so I guess I'm bailing.

Ozymandias · « **Reply #33 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 14:29 »

Quote from: tHEfOOL on 03 Dec 2010, 11:34

i know, it's just that this proves that there are other ways life could evolve, for all we know there could be another planet where all life evolved with arsenic instead of phosphorous, and that would be pretty coo but deadly for us

Doesn't necessarily mean that either, since these organisms likely evolved from previous phosphorus organisms, which evolved in the standard Earth-like environment of...Earth. At best, this proves that life could continue in a phosphorus-free, arsenic-rich environment since, uh...that's exactly what happened.

Akima · « **Reply #34 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 15:17 »

Quote from: Ptommydski on 03 Dec 2010, 06:16

Arsenic based sludge discovered, will marry before Joe Hocking.

Only in states that allow single-sex marriage...

Bacteria only have one sex, or no sex, depending on how you look at it.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #35 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 15:58 »

Arsenic is the new phosphorous and sexlessness is the new sexy.

Johnny C · « **Reply #36 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 16:08 »

Quote from: Ptommydski on 03 Dec 2010, 12:40

Quote from: scarred on 03 Dec 2010, 12:33
I thought it was a play on Arsenic and Old Lace?

It is but it can be both.

I was going to make a Runaways joke but I couldn't work out if JC had already made it so I guess I'm bailing.

i don't read runaways

Jace · « **Reply #37 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 16:48 »

Quote from: tHEfOOL on 03 Dec 2010, 11:34

i know, it's just that this proves that there are other ways life could evolve, for all we know there could be another planet where all life evolved with arsenic instead of phosphorous

Believe this is the plot of the movie Evolution.
Remember that movie? with David Duchovney and that black guy from MadTV (I think).

scarred · « **Reply #38 on:** 03 Dec 2010, 17:10 »

and like 40 episodes of the x-files

LittleKey · « **Reply #39 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 00:21 »

I think I heard somewhere that this organism they found still does use phosphorous, just that it subbed MOST of it out for arsenic. I could very well be wrong about that though!

I think this is an important discovery, but to me it's kind of like "Well... yeah, of course life can work differently than expected." It's just proof for something that's common sense in my mind.

snalin · « **Reply #40 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 05:36 »

According to the article, it thrived even after the scientist-dudes removed all phosphorous from it's environment, so yeah.

David_Dovey · « **Reply #41 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 06:37 »

To me the most important and awesome consequence of this discovery is that it means that it has changed how we will search for extraterrestrial life in future. It used to be that when it was thought that it took oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur and phosphorous to make life, and that that was the only way to make life, that was what was being searched for on other planets. Now arsenic is in the mix, and because it seems the reason phosphorous was so easily replaced by arsenic is because of their similar atomic weights, it becomes plausible that there are many other elements that'd do the job as well. I really don't think it's hyperbole to call this a game changer, it's basically throwing the doors wide open with regards to what constitutes life and how this affects the odds that there really is something else out there.

jhocking · « **Reply #42 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 07:19 »

Quote from: Ozymandias on 03 Dec 2010, 09:34

It's really cool, but not destroying the fundamental basis of organic chemistry here.

I know what you mean here but just a little semantic quibble: organic chemistry is not actually the chemistry of living things. That would be biochemistry. Organic chemistry is basically defined as "the chemistry of carbon compounds" (like the chemistry behind oil or alcohol or drugs.) So pretty much by definition organic chemistry wouldn't be changed by discovering new life forms.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #43 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 07:39 »

What about orgasmic chemistry.

I can expand the definition of that if anyone wants to roll around to my Fortress of Love.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #44 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 07:39 »

Come on in yeaaaaaah.

Akima · « **Reply #45 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 16:00 »

Quote from: KharBevNor on 04 Dec 2010, 07:39

Come on in yeaaaaaah.

That might be the scariest image I've seen this week. I bet the algae have already become sentient, and they'll be applying to join the UN next Thursday.

Dliessmgg · « **Reply #46 on:** 04 Dec 2010, 16:53 »

Quote from: KharBevNor on 04 Dec 2010, 07:39

Come on in yeaaaaaah.

I guess a giant zombie or something orgasm'd on it?

benenator · « **Reply #47 on:** 06 Dec 2010, 03:08 »

This was NOT arsenic-based life.

This was a form of bacteria in an arsenic-resistant family(? some kind of group) which was discovered to be able to replace much of the phosphorus in its biology with arsenic. There were still phosphorus impurites in this experimental group.

Feel free to attempt the rare and dangerous Pedantic Pestersonome x2 Combo.

BrittanyMarie · « **Reply #48 on:** 06 Dec 2010, 03:18 »

Quote from: KharBevNor on 04 Dec 2010, 07:39

What about orgasmic chemistry.

I can expand the definition of that if anyone wants to roll around to my Fortress of Love.

sig'd

Dollface · « **Reply #49 on:** 06 Dec 2010, 03:23 »

i heared this on radio.

Jeph Jacques's comics discussion forums

Author Topic: "The definition of life has just expanded" (Read 34153 times)