Surely other Bio-enthusiasts like myself have already heard/read the news but it's definitely worth repeating. Arsenic, once considered a lethal element to life forms, has been found to be a basic building block for this bacteria. In times when phosphorus is not in abundance, these microbes are able to alter their DNA phosphate backbone and substitute it with arsenic.
Surely more extremophiles will further be discovered in deep ocean vents or other extreme environments like these.
What personally fascinates me is the organisms ability to voluntarily alter it's DNA BACKBONE. Unless I'm grossly ignoring some other organisms this is the first of it's kind but I'd be willing to bet not the last. These kinds of findings just enlarge the possibility that life forms may exist on other planets in environments once deemed 'unsuitable'. Looks like 'Alien' life forms are much closer to us than we thought
http://www.informationweek.com/news...rticle.jhtml?articleID=228500210&itc=ref-true
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ake-provides-clue-extra-terrestrial-life.html
http://www.salon.com/news/science/?...12/03/nasa_discovers_amazing_new_form_of_life
Surely more extremophiles will further be discovered in deep ocean vents or other extreme environments like these.
What personally fascinates me is the organisms ability to voluntarily alter it's DNA BACKBONE. Unless I'm grossly ignoring some other organisms this is the first of it's kind but I'd be willing to bet not the last. These kinds of findings just enlarge the possibility that life forms may exist on other planets in environments once deemed 'unsuitable'. Looks like 'Alien' life forms are much closer to us than we thought
http://www.informationweek.com/news...rticle.jhtml?articleID=228500210&itc=ref-true
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ake-provides-clue-extra-terrestrial-life.html
http://www.salon.com/news/science/?...12/03/nasa_discovers_amazing_new_form_of_life