Arsenic based life

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html

reading about this made me realize I had no idea what arsenic was, other than when I hear the word I think of a type of posion, or of fire

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Arsenic

and of Phosphorus

http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/15.html

an ancient name for the planet Venus :)

and of Mono Lake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake

and after reading this

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/12/06/nasa-discovers-microbe-that-replaces-phosphorus-with-arsenic-in-its-dna/

reading of biomass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass

stored sunlight

and came across this

Arsenic-metabolizing bacteria

Although arsenic is toxic to most animal life, researchers have discovered certain types of bacteria that can fuel themselves using arsenic and sunlight. The bacteria were found in Mono Lake, California, which is fed by hydrothermal waters that leach out arsenic-containing minerals from the surrounding rocks. The American scientists who made the discovery suspect that these organisms harness an ancient metabolic pathway that was present in photosynthesizing bacteria on Earth before oxygen was present in the atmosphere

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2 thoughts on “Arsenic based life”

With a little tweek here and there, human dna can be changed to exist in other types of environments. For example, our lungs on earth are geared towards oxygen but they are capable of being geared towards nitrogen.