by Rimjob
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.
According to Gizmodo and NASA Watch, NASA will announce the discovery of a bacterium in California's Mono Lake that achieves the effect of phosphorylation differently than other known organisms. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacterium uses arsenic, which is usually toxic & deadly to living things. So if life can adapt to use arsenic here on Earth, it makes it possible that life can adapt to live off arsenic (and God knows what else) somewhere out there.
continued at Daily Kos....
