Yesterday morning at 11AM PST I went to the NASA TV stream eagerly anticipating what many hoped would be confirmation of the discovery of alien life. The best I was hoping for was some kind of microbial life. Moments before NASA’s press conference I noticed that the cat was already out of the bag.
Initially, I was disappointed to see that the discovery had not taken place on another world, but in Mono Lake, California. Was this discovery over-hyped? Possibly. I’m not sure who contributed to the hype more, NASA or the general public, but it did result in quite a bit of excitement and speculation. I’ve become fairly jaded by the numerous amount of over-hyped discoveries in the past, so I told myself not to expect much. But I couldn’t help wondering and getting a little excited over the possibility that this might be it; the news we’ve all been waiting for.
But I need to give credit where credit is due. This discovery may not seem earth-shattering in an obvious sense, but it is a pretty significant discovery that warrants our attention. If I understand the science correctly, there are six chemicals that are used to form the DNA of every single known form of life on Earth: Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. But this newly discovered microbe, a common bacterium, has the ability to substitute the normally harmful arsenic for phosophorus.
Again, I can see why this wouldn’t seem all that significant. But I’d compare it to the discovery of life in the deepest, coldest, darkest depths of the ocean, which showed us that not all life, as previously thought, requires sunlight in order to survive. It was discoveries like this that lead scientists to surmise that life might exist in an ocean under the ice of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
NASA’s discovery is potentially even more impressive. Of the six chemicals needed for life, phosphorus is deemed particularly integral. But this microbe completely defies that belief. In a nice nod to “Star Trek: The Original Series” one scientist at the NASA briefing equates this microbe to the silicon-based life in “The Devil in the Dark”, a favorite episode of mine. Like silicon-based life (as opposed to carbon-based life on Earth), forms of life with alternate biochemistries were completely theoretical… until now. So obviously, this increases the chances of life forming on another world, and makes us consider different possibilities for what form that life might take.
IMAGE CREDIT / MORE INFO:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html
