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California Lake's Arsenic Hints At a Shadow Biosphere
MichaelSmith writes "Scientists think that there might be arsenic-based life in Mono Lake, California. If it's shown to exist, such life could have evolved independently from our own, or it could have forked from ours at a very early stage."
Any organism with an Adenosine triarsenate based energy transport structure would be a serious badass.
Arsenic and Phosphorus are quite similar, chemically; but I'm not nearly chemist enough to know if there are messy details preventing a suitably evolved biological system from substituting one for the other.
Though, this being the internet, I'm obliged to note that Chuck Norris already does.
Can we eat them and are they tasty?
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
The highly intelligent life would find it bizarre that some organisms would actually thrive in an atmosphere with such a dangerous and corrosive gas like oxygen.
Did Nature Also Choose Arsenic?
I had just read about this possibility today in this book, a fascinating compendium of mini-essays by leading thinkers about scientific or social developments that may be around the corner. Existing tests for biological organisms are geared towards a working asssumption that life forms will be part of the basic, familiar biological tree that we are based on. A "shadow biosphere" was discussed as something that could potentially be an alternative hierarchy of life, so unfamiliar that we haven't understood how to look for it even though it could be relatively populous in certain niche areas of the earth.
Finding an alternative pathway to the evolution of complex life forms could affect our perception of how common life is in the universe and could be a stunning treasure trove of discovery and insight for biologists.
Why should this merit our attention? All she does is speculate about it. I just read the paper she wrote about it in January of last year, and that was almost pure speculation too.
Tell you what: call us back when there is something to actually show us in this area. So far there is next to nothing but somebody's wild idea.
In the meantime, I have a theory of my own: all dinosaurs were thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, then thin again at the other end.
Can I get a research grant please?
Don't you hate when someone forks a project and then forgets about it, leaving an odd little version buried in an obscure corner?
Super rodents? I don't believe in them.
Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
Damned open source projects. They didn't like the carbon license, so they made their own.
Next thing they'll be telling us, humans are a fork of monkeys.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Just FYI, Mono Lake lies in an area that's still quite volcanically active, with many hot springs and fumaroles including a couple that can be seen right from U.S. Route 395, the main highway that runs through the region. In fact, the Long Valley area you mentioned is the caldera of a potential super volcano.
The whole area is also very beautiful in an almost other-worldly way. It looks sort of like one of the better Star Trek (TOS) sets.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Is that with no life still a lifeform?
God: let there be man!
Secretary: god, R&D's on the other line, they're saying they made a new breakthrough.
God: what kind of breakthrough?
Secretary: apparently, phosphorus is better than arsenic and it's less polluting. They're saying that the efficiency of ATP alone is worth the transition.
God: medamnit, why didn't they get this to me sooner, I just finished breathing life into this guy. Now what am I supposed to do with poor Adamus?
Secretary: well, our lawyers did some digging and found that the name infringes on some obscure company that caught wind of the project and are already demanding royalties. That, and the EPA is starting to regulate arsenic more vigorously.
God: *sigh* time to make some cutbacks *pumps shotgun*
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She's being a scientist of the most famous type - she's calling the play before hand. She's putting her reputation on the line, making a prediction, describing a means to test it, and then going to check it herself. She's arguing in the oldest of sense that her insight is right, and in doing so if she gets the job done and is actually right, she's going to be pretty darned famous.
This is far removed from a scientist making a droll statement based on a computer model. She's saying, there is another radically different kind of life on earth and that she is going to show us how to find it. It's worlds beyond cool. She's trying to be like Babe Ruth calling the home run before he does it, and the world just loves that sort of a thing. In a world where people live around the edges and fritter away at them, she's trying to kick open an entirely door. She gets it, and in a very intuitive and natural way, what a scientist is supposed to be - a leader, because their education gives them intuition born out by test, that shows us how to see new things. Life in a dead lake, alien to our own, how much more of a prediction do you need?
This is my sig.
No, here in California, we are smart enough to recognize that the Arsenic in the lake is naturally occurring, and is therefor healthy. No doubt one of our enterprising vegans will be bottling it and selling it with a big 'organic' label strung across the front.