A
few days ago, NASA has created a furor in the virtual world will be
holding a press conference to announce that it is called "will bring a
huge impact to the quest for extraterrestrial life proof". This word has made media and bloggers have speculated about the possible discovery of life in outer space by NASA.The media immediately lowers the news with titles like:
"Did they find ET?"
or
"Has NASA found little green men?"
In Indonesia, Kompas.com proclaimed the headline: "NASA finding alien?"
Vivanews even proclaimed with the title: "Tomorrow, NASA konpers title about an alien", without a question mark behind the title.
One well-known blogger in the U.S. believe that NASA may have found life on Titan, Saturn's moon. Other bloggers even wondered whether the discovery of aliens in Roswell bodies will also be announced.
So, a few readers asked me to post the results of a NASA press conference today has done time in Indonesia.
Well, here's the results of the press conference, quite boring actually.
NASA held a press conference to announce the discovery is not intelligent life forms in outer space (aliens). They did find an incredible life forms, but not on another planet, but here on earth.
The invention is the discovery of microbes in Mono Lake, California.
This is not a microbe microbes haphazard. He can survive and reproduce using arsenic, an element previously considered poisonous to life.
So far, we know there are six key elements that make up life on earth, namely: Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur.
Phosphorus itself is an important element supporting DNA and RNA and is regarded as an essential element for all living cells.
Microbes found in Mono Lake can replace phosphorus with arsenic in its cell components.
Although arsenic has a chemical structure similar to phosphorus, but this element is harmful to forms of life on earth because it could interfere with the metabolic pathway.
Felisa Wolfe Simon, a NASA Astrobiology expert who is also head of the research team that discovered microbes, said:
"We know that there are some types of microbes can breathe arsenic. Yet what we find is something new. Microbes are building a body by using Arsenic."
"If something here on earth can do unexpected things like that, there must be something else that can be done by the life we have never seen before."
This discovery will change the course of science as we know. So far, researchers have been using a benchmark of science that has been known to find a planet that has characteristics that could support life. Now it has expanded benchmark.
"The definition of life has just evolved," said Ed Weiler, an official from the department of science at NASA.
"While we continue to strive to find signs of life in our solar system, maybe we should think more broadly, more diverse and consider the lives of others we do not know before."
These microbes, called GFAJ-1, is a member of a group of bacteria Gammaproteobacteria.
The discovery is the first time this has happened when the researchers took these microbes to the laboratory and develop it. When they replace phosphorus with arsenic, the microbes continued to grow. In fact they use arsenic to build new cells so that they become part of the elements of biochemical systems, such as DNA, proteins and cell membranes.
The research team decided to investigate the Mono Lake because the condition is not uncommon. The lake is known to have high levels of salt, and the Alkaline Arsenic levels due to the separation of this lake of fresh water sources for more than 50 years.
The press conference was probably disappointing for fans of aliens. However, at least NASA was right when they said the finding could bring big impact on the search for extraterrestrial life. Now they can think outside the box and look at the possibility of a wider audience.