Post by Afgncaap5 on Dec 2, 2010 16:20:58 GMT -5
Oh, those crazy cooks at NASA have done it again! Their latest discovery is a creature that uses Arsenic as part of its basic bio-chemistry, a previously unknown phenomenon.
A few people are calling this an "alien" life form, and I'm a bit torn on that terminology. If you use "alien" to mean "different than what we previously understood", then yes, I suppose you could. However, it's still a life form that's native to the planet (OR IS IT?!) and so I don't think that term quite works (although for someone who lived in, say, Australia or Europe, you might be able to say that it's an alien life form from a vantage point of your continent.)
All in all, a big day for microbiologists and people who hope that we'll one day find true aliens on other planets. The definition of "life as we know it" has just expanded in a tiny, though very significant, way, I think.
A few people are calling this an "alien" life form, and I'm a bit torn on that terminology. If you use "alien" to mean "different than what we previously understood", then yes, I suppose you could. However, it's still a life form that's native to the planet (OR IS IT?!) and so I don't think that term quite works (although for someone who lived in, say, Australia or Europe, you might be able to say that it's an alien life form from a vantage point of your continent.)
All in all, a big day for microbiologists and people who hope that we'll one day find true aliens on other planets. The definition of "life as we know it" has just expanded in a tiny, though very significant, way, I think.
