NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial Life

[Reverend]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

If that calculation is just based on the unexpected proliferation of red dwarfs, I have to wonder how much of an impact a similar underestimation of brown dwarfs will have. I'm sure they'll be constantly having to revise old assumptions across the board as our ability to detect fainter, low mass objects increases.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Is this just going to be the discovery of life in arsenic found in some Californian lake?

Oh hell there's arsenic & mercury in Minnesota lakes too . (And zebra mussles) I'd go for a swim but the wind chill is -10 right now!

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Which after watching many of the documentaries over the past few years like Planet Earth or Life it seems more & more that there is life everywhere; from hydrothermal vents that have shrimp (which seem to be everywhere!) & other critters crawling around in water that is extremely hot to bacteria living under a salty patch of land (something I saw on Science Channel) that looks lifeless. The amount of life found here on & in Earth never fails to amaze me and always makes me think if that can survive there why not on another world.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Maybe it's got something to do with our Cylon DNA?

 

[Mysterion]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Sigh. :facepalm:

All I'm saying is that many people find what NASA does and says to be very routine and mundane. When was the last time anyone, other than people interested in the space program, got excited about a space-shuttle launch? NASA's... "over hyping" of mundane and routine things has made much of the space program fairly routine and mundane.

This. Things that scientists find to be exciting and vastly important, aren't necessarily exciting and vastly important to the average guy on the street.

NASA may wish to look at the way they word their press releases.

 

[Starbreaker]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Arsenic based bacteria... on Earth.

 

[Mysterion]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Arsenic based bacteria... on Earth.

Stay tuned for the NASA Drama and Light Opera Society production of Arsenic and Old Space.

 

[Servo]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Is this just going to be the discovery of life in arsenic found in some Californian lake?

Life in arsenic? I think you've misread mate. The life form is made from arsenic, which was thought to be impossible, and is certainly radically different from any other life found on this planet.

 

[Lindley]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Is this just going to be the discovery of life in arsenic found in some Californian lake?

Life in arsenic? I think you've misread mate. The life form is made from arsenic, which was thought to be impossible, and is certainly radically different from any other life found on this planet.

It would be more or less equivalent to the importance of discovering silicon-based life on Earth. Does that put it in perspective?

 

[Servo]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

^ Exactly.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

IMHO it deminishes th public interest to carry it out like this. Why make an annoucement that you're going to announce something in a few days unless the thing you're going to annouce is something HUGE that will capture the public interest? (The common man.)

Because all this is, is the "boy who called wolf." If NASA keeps calling "breaking scientific discovery" everytime they find something that, to most people, is mundane.

Science is ALWAYS mundane to the common man, hence these announcements were not (and are, in fact, NEVER) made for their benefit, but for the benefit of science writers in magazines, science fiction writers, artists, amateur astronomers, college students, or nerds like us who just happen to find it interesting. The final announcement is being made by scientists for the benefit of other scientists and/or science enthusiasts... that's all (need proof? How many of you knew anything about this before you stumbled onto this thread?).

When something "big" enough to interest the common man comes along, it won't be announced by scientists, it'll be announced by the Secretary of Defense or the President or at the very least one of NASA's paid PR people specialized in smoothing things over and making Joe The Plumber understand what the hell is going on. Something like "Two satellites collided in space this morning. he's a CGI animation of what it looked like. Here are some cool statistics. Here's a reference to a hollywood movie you may have seen. Here's the list of potential hazards that sounds kinda scary. Thank you for your attention."

 

[Jetfire]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Are Aliens Among Us? Sort of, NASA Says

Alien life has been among us all along, according to new biological findings announced by NASA Thursday.
Research conducted by biochemist Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon from the U.S. Geological Survey has turned the quest for alien life on its ear, suggesting that phosphorous -- which is found in every living thing -- is not necessarily the only sign of life. Wolfe-Simon will explain the findings at a hotly anticipated NASA press conference today at 2 p.m.
After a two-year study at California's Mono Lake, near Yosemite National Park, Wolfe-Simon found that a bug will grow in the presence of the toxic chemical arsenic when only slight traces of phosphorous are present. It's a radical finding, says molecular biologist Steven Benner, who is part of NASA's "Team Titan" and an expert on astrobiology -- forcing the space agency to redefine the quest for other life in the universe.
"When we're searching for alien life, if it's not a Ferengi from Star Trek, what would it be?" Benner asked FoxNews.com. In his estimation, we've always defined life as something that has the exact same chemistry as a life-form on Earth. The new discovery will likely change that equation, because it means the basic building blocks of DNA are not quite what we thought.
Benner, said the organism at Mono Lake grew without high levels of the nutrient phosphate (although some phosphates were still present). Just as important, it could change how we look for alien life on other planets, especially on Saturn and the moons of Jupiter.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/02/alien-life-nasa-titan-arsenic-bacteria/#ixzz16yv9rTBM

 

[tharpdevenport]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

So, is using it ti kill somebody, like in "Arsenic and Old Lace", double homicide.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

It may not be ET but I keep hearing comparisons to Star Trek when the Horta was encounered. This is big news and just gives the good folks looking for life on other worlds another thing to look for.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

The headline should read, "NASA Discovers Life on PLANET EARTH! Manipulates it into having pseudo-extraterrestrial characteristics (if one accepts the premise that arsenic-based ET life might just possibly occur naturally on some other world)".

Clearly the people working for NASA who arrange these kinds of press releases are NOT rocket scientists.

 

[Arrqh]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Clearly the people working for NASA who arrange these kinds of press releases are NOT rocket scientists.

Obviously not; the lead author of the paper is an evolutionary geochemist.

 

[KJbushway]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial


Science comedy.

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

This scientists involved in this study are now coming under criticism for using an allegedly flawed methodology, and the result may be in question:

http://www.slate.com/id/2276919/pagenum/all

 

[KJbushway]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

That sucks.
Maybe they are just trying to amp up the interest in science in young people.
Hell, everyone knows we young people need it.

 

[Saquist]

Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Like this couldn't be seen in first place.
This annoucement was a ploy from the very begining from it's very inception. I hate to be the voice of descent but NASA has been on the decline for 30 years with out the budget it needs to get things done.

We relied on them for the technology to take us to the moon. That tech is over 30 years old and should be mere childs play by now. Instead we can't solve the Orion problem...they blew up 2 shuttles for no good reason and what has become an increasingly questionable NASA culture of doing.

NASA was supposed to be a new age Now it's just aged.
It's time the military absorbed it completely.