Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from NPR.
Scientists Find Bacterium That Survives On Arsenic
by Jon Hamilton
Researchers say they have found a bacterium that defies scientific dogma: It's able to use the deadly poison arsenic in place of an element previously considered essential for life. The finding appears to expand the range of places where life could exist — both on Earth and elsewhere in the universe.
The discovery comes from a young NASA astrobiologist who likes to find exceptions to rules. Felisa Wolfe-Simon says she was fascinated by crustaceans because they don't use iron to carry oxygen around their bodies the way most species do. Instead, they use copper.
Wolfe-Simon thought this sort of chemical substitution might go even further.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
continued at Daily Kos....
Earlier this week, an announcement of a press conference today at NASA led to all sorts of speculation as to what would be announced. Based on who was appearing at the press conference, most of the speculation centered around the idea that maybe alien life had been discovered on Saturn's moon, Titan. Well, some of the information about the press conference has leaked, and the discovery is much more terrestrial. However, it does have implications for the discovery of life on other planets.
