Topic: NASA won't disclose reason for news conference.

[Markcb750]

Life on another planet would be one of the greatest discoveries in history

Just think of the fun we could have trying to figure out if it would help us or hurt us.


http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html


Participants are:

-     Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-     Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
-     Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-     Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
-     James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe


Interesting, I think

[mick750F]

   We are not alone...

   I hope this news conference is the result of an important discovery and not just a bunch of PR fluff. I guess we'll know on Thursday, I'll be watching if I can.

Mike

[Bob Wessner]

Hmm, I wonder if SETI will be miffed. 

[Markcb750]

Any of you run the SETI search software as a screen saver?

I did for a long time, they never told me my computer found anything.

[Kframe]

Maybe the found out where all the missing socks go?
Or where Arsenio Hall's career went?
Or where SNL's funny went?
 
-K

[gmonkey]

They've discovered the ringworld.

[Markcb750]

Yes indeed, here is the photo. The Lying Bastard leaves tomorrow.

[TwoTired]

Is there a Lord for those rings?

[Don R]

Amoeba poo found in mars rocks.

[Grnrngr]

Chuck Norris's footprints on Mars...

[wannabridin]

no that was a fist punch on mars, the bruise is Olympus Mons!

but i run a whole slew of projects through BOINC, including SETI.  been running it on at LEAST one computer since 2002.  now i run it on my work computer 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, and on my home pc about 3-4 days a week.  parents didn't like it on theirs, as well as the gf...  either way, haven't gotten anything special, oh well, still cool to be a part of something like that!

if you want to have more control of things, give Galaxy Zoo a try!  it's a lot of fun, and actually challenges you at times, plus there has been some actual finds on there and named after the user!

[ev0lve]

I'm rooting for Team Alien:

"All life on Earth - from microbes to elephants and us -- is based on a single genetic model that requires the element phosphorus as one of its six essential components.

But now researchers have uncovered a bacterium that has five of those essential elements but has, in effect, replaced phosphorus with its look-alike but toxic cousin, arsenic.

The research, funded through NASA and conducted with samples from California's Mono Lake, found that some of the bacteria not only used arsenic to live, but had arsenic embedded into their DNA, RNA and other basic underpinnings."

"These bugs haven't just replaced one useful element with another, they have the arsenic in the basic building blocks of their make-up," she said. "We don't know if the arsenic replaced phosphorus or if it was there from the very beginning - in which case it would strongly suggest the existence of a shadow biosphere."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120203102.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

[Duanob]

Life on another planet would be one of the greatest discoveries in history

Or a great marketing scheme to keep NASA funded and alive.

[ev0lve]

NASA really shouldn't need much of a marketing scheme. It's a product that should sell itself.

[flybox1]

dissapointed. 
hoped they found the Stargate, hit redial, and Elvis and Bruce Lee were there to greet us 

[knowsnothing]

Yeah not as cool as Stargate    But still pretty freaking amazing to science dorks.

[Grnrngr]

well maybe, but no more amazing than the algaes that live in the several hundred degree waters of hot springs, power plant outflows, or the toxic effluvient of the sub-oceanic fumaroles....I thought the "amazing adaptivity" of life was already well known...

[syth82]

I think the bigger point is that the basic structure of life is not confined to the limits we have always known it to be. Everything alive is made of the same group of elements and  has the same dna structure. Until now. What else could be out there? Where else could we be looking for life?

[Grnrngr]

I guess my point is, we find life EVERYWHERE we look on this planet, so I'm not really surprised something could live in an environment as toxic as Mono Lake.  Not putting their discovery down, and it may lead to some very interesting results, but now the search is to see if this is infact evolution in progress, which would be an interesting thing to prove, or if it's been that way since the beginning, which would mean that at least a little of what we think we know, is actually wrong, which could also lead to some rethinking and more interesting results.  I'm all for looking on some other planet now...seems plausible we could colonize Mars, maybe some microbial life there as well, I haven't kept up with space science like I used to, but speculation was one of Jupiters moons (IO?) may actually be capable of supporting life also, don't know if it's been disproven or not, but .... I wanna go to the STARS!!!!...heh..I spent all Thanksgiving day watching History Channel's "Visited by Aliens" marathon