Life can exist on poison

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netrox

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Wow! It turns out that phosphorous is not necessary for life... bacteria can survive just fine on arsenic!

"Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorus — one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere in the universe or even here on Earth using biochemical powers we have not yet dared to dream about."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?src=me
 
Stephen Hawking was right about alien life!
 
I ahve no doubt life exists on other planets. In other thread, we "counted" sextillion stars... and for every star, it usually have like 10 planets... so the odds of this planet being the only planet to support life? Unimaginable.
 
doesn't surprised me if life can survive just fine in the deepest of the ocean or the hottest part of the earth (Archae Bacteria).
 
I thought I heard a reference of this arsenic to California....anybody?
 
I thought apples had arsenic in the seeds. But it turns out I was wrong--they contain cyanide. :lol:
 
It reminds me of Horta in old Star Trek episode, "Devil in the Dark".
 
authentic said:
Mono Lake, California. I plan to visit there in the spring. :D
Click to expand...

I have been there a couple of times----absolutely dead! Except of course, the bacterial lifeforms we just learned about! :D
 
im not surprised either, i have always thought aliens would breathe poison, or eat, etc, hell theres a great sci-fi film with this similar, "Battlefield Earth" and its a great film too

see it...its pretty much well known in the sci-fi community that aliens would breathe/live on extremely toxic environment (norma for them)...but yer even our own terrestirial bacteria didnt come as suprising hell it makes sense Earth was an extremely toxic inhabitual place before oxygen/hydrogen based life evolved, it has to be some precursor...so this could be one of it?... but yah its still really interesting....hmm
 
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