News from the NASA Press Conference on the Alien : the Discovery of a Unique New Form of Life

A few days ago, NASA has created a furore in
the virtual world with the announcing will be
holding a press conference that it is called "will bring great impact to the quest for evidence of extraterrestrial life". This word has made the media and bloggers have speculated about the possibility of finding life in outer space by NASA.

The media were immediately lowered the news with a headline like :

"Did They find ET?"

or

"Has NASA found little green men?"

One of the famous blogger in America believe
that NASA may have found life on Titan, Saturn's moon. Other bloggers even wonder whether the discovery of alien bodies at Roswell will also be announced.

Well, here's the press conference, quite boring actually.
NASA held a press conference not to announce the discovery of intelligent life forms in outerspace (aliens). They did find an extraordinary life forms, but not on another planet, but on this earth.

The invention in question is the discovery
of microbes in Mono Lake, California.

Microbes are not haphazardly microbes. He can survive and reproduce by using arsenic, an element previously considered to be toxic to life.

So far, we know there are six main elements that make up life on earth, namely : Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulphur.

Phosphorus itself is one important element
supporting DNA and RNA and is regarded as an essential element for all living cells.

Microbes found in Mono Lake could replace with Arsenic Phosphorus in the component cells.

Although Arsenic has a chemical structure similar to Phosphorus, but these elements are harmful to life forms on earth because it can interfere with metabolic path ways.

Felisa Wolfe Simon, one of NASA's Astrobiology expert who also heads the
re search team who discovered the microbes, said :

"We know that there are several types of microbes that can breathe with Arsenic. But what we found was something new. Microbes are built his body using Arsenic."

"If anything on this earth can do something unexpected like that, there must be something else that can be done by the life that we have never seen before."
This discovery will change the course
of science as we know it. During this time, the
rese archers always use the benchmark of
science that has been known to find planets that have characteristics that could support life. Now the standard has been expanded.

"The definition of life has just evolved," said Ed
Weiler, an official from the department of science at NASA.

"While we continue to try to find signs of life in our solar system, perhaps we should think broader, more diverse, and consider the other life we did not know before."

These microbes, called GFAJ-1, is a member of the Gamma proteo bacteria group of bacteria.

The discovery was first occurred when the
researchers took these microbes to the
laboratory and develop it. When they replace
Phosphorus in Arsenic, microbes continue to
grow. They even use it to build Arsenic new cells so that the elements that became part of biochemical systems, such as DNA, proteins and cell membranes.

The team decided to examine the Mono Lake because of an unusual condition.
This lake is known to have salinity, Alkaline and arsenic are high due to the separation of this
lake of fresh water sources for over 50 years.

This press conference may be disappointing for fans of aliens. However, at least NASA's true when they say that this discovery could bring a huge impact on the search for extra terrestrial life. Now they can think outside the box and see the broader possibilities.