ftasker@MiamiHerald.com
The NASA announcement created an enormous Internet buzz: The space
agency was going to reveal Thursday ``an astrobiology finding that will
impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.''
Was
the government about to say it had found liquid water on a moon of
Jupiter? Microbes on Mars? Something even stranger -- say, ET?
Sci-fi bloggers speculated the announcement ``could prove the existence
of aliens'' or ``the theory of shadow creatures that exist in tandem
with our own.''
But then the announcement came and it was about . . . bacteria right here on Earth.
At a 2 p.m. news conference streamed live over the Web, scientists at
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said they found
microbes in the mud beneath a California lake that can use arsenic --
usually considered toxic -- rather than phosphorus as one of the
building blocks of its DNA. Phosphorus is one of the elements that
sustains all other life forms on earth.
After their great
anticipation, sci-fi fans were told the discovery might help cut
pollution of waterways like Lake Okeechobee by replacing the phosphorus
in fertilizers that run off into the lake, creating fish-choking algae
blooms.
One of the NASA researchers acknowledged the
frustration after the build-up: ``I can see you're disappointed, that
some of you were expecting walking, talking aliens,'' said Felisa
Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology researcher and co-author of the study.
``It would be incredible to announce that we have found an alien. But
from our understanding of biology, this is a phenomenal finding. You're
taking the fundamental building blocks of life and replacing one of
them with another compound.''
She even tried to put a sci-fi spin on it: ``This is the equivalent of the Star Trek episode in which they found life forms on a distant planet that substituted silica for carbon in their basic makeup.
``Maybe we can find ET now because we have a better idea of what we're looking for.''
After the news conference, a University of Miami scientist
good-naturedly speculated on what Thursday's announcement might mean for
the shape of life on other planets.
``This is a pretty big
deal,'' said Athula Wikramanayake, a UM expert in evolutionary biology.
``We've always believed that the basic elements needed for life are
carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus,'' he said.
On a planet whose atmosphere is rich in arsenic, ``we wouldn't expect
anything resembling humanoids. It's very unlikely they would look like
humans.
Wikramanayake agreed with famed physicist Stephen
Hawking, who in a newspaper interview in May pointed out that any aliens
who arrive on earth from billions of miles away logically will be far
more advanced than planet-bound earthlings.
``If aliens ever
visit us,'' Hawking warned, ``I think the outcome would be much as when
Columbus first landed in America -- which didn't turn out very well for
the Native Americans.''
``It's possible,'' said Wikramanayake.
``Some planets are billions of years older than earth. They've had a lot of time to evolve.''
Does he agree such aliens would be hostile?
He left a ray of hope: ``It's hard to say whether they would be as
aggressive as humans. Humans evolved because of tribal fighting. Aliens
might not have the same social history.''
agency was going to reveal Thursday ``an astrobiology finding that will
impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.''
Was
the government about to say it had found liquid water on a moon of
Jupiter? Microbes on Mars? Something even stranger -- say, ET?
Sci-fi bloggers speculated the announcement ``could prove the existence
of aliens'' or ``the theory of shadow creatures that exist in tandem
with our own.''
But then the announcement came and it was about . . . bacteria right here on Earth.
At a 2 p.m. news conference streamed live over the Web, scientists at
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said they found
microbes in the mud beneath a California lake that can use arsenic --
usually considered toxic -- rather than phosphorus as one of the
building blocks of its DNA. Phosphorus is one of the elements that
sustains all other life forms on earth.
After their great
anticipation, sci-fi fans were told the discovery might help cut
pollution of waterways like Lake Okeechobee by replacing the phosphorus
in fertilizers that run off into the lake, creating fish-choking algae
blooms.
One of the NASA researchers acknowledged the
frustration after the build-up: ``I can see you're disappointed, that
some of you were expecting walking, talking aliens,'' said Felisa
Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology researcher and co-author of the study.
``It would be incredible to announce that we have found an alien. But
from our understanding of biology, this is a phenomenal finding. You're
taking the fundamental building blocks of life and replacing one of
them with another compound.''
She even tried to put a sci-fi spin on it: ``This is the equivalent of the Star Trek episode in which they found life forms on a distant planet that substituted silica for carbon in their basic makeup.
``Maybe we can find ET now because we have a better idea of what we're looking for.''
After the news conference, a University of Miami scientist
good-naturedly speculated on what Thursday's announcement might mean for
the shape of life on other planets.
``This is a pretty big
deal,'' said Athula Wikramanayake, a UM expert in evolutionary biology.
``We've always believed that the basic elements needed for life are
carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus,'' he said.
On a planet whose atmosphere is rich in arsenic, ``we wouldn't expect
anything resembling humanoids. It's very unlikely they would look like
humans.
Wikramanayake agreed with famed physicist Stephen
Hawking, who in a newspaper interview in May pointed out that any aliens
who arrive on earth from billions of miles away logically will be far
more advanced than planet-bound earthlings.
``If aliens ever
visit us,'' Hawking warned, ``I think the outcome would be much as when
Columbus first landed in America -- which didn't turn out very well for
the Native Americans.''
``It's possible,'' said Wikramanayake.
``Some planets are billions of years older than earth. They've had a lot of time to evolve.''
Does he agree such aliens would be hostile?
He left a ray of hope: ``It's hard to say whether they would be as
aggressive as humans. Humans evolved because of tribal fighting. Aliens
might not have the same social history.''
--
http://grou.ps/africanatheistsdotorg/blogs/1110037
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