Unrelated picture.
Life in the universe doesn’t necessarily have to hide on distant planets in order to evade our discovery, and proof of it is the fact that we have just discovered a microorganism that is able to thrive and reproduce using arsenic (a toxic chemical). The microorganism, which substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell component, has been discovered in the harsh environment of California’s Lake Mono by a NASA-funded astrobiology research team.
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.
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 was used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.
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.
If you’re not sure what the implications of this discovery are, let me tell you this: they’re enormous. It changes everything we know about biology and life itself and offers the possibility of finding life on planets that don’t resemble Earth.
Now let’s take a moment and bow to our new tiny overlords.
