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Author Topic: NASA Astrobiology News Conference  (Read 3494 times)

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Offline adzTopic starter

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NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« on: November 30, 2010, 11:16:27 PM »
Clickety-click

/me sits patiently waiting....
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2010, 12:15:44 AM »
I was wondering if this could be related to the seemingly seasonal variation of the methane in Martian atmosphere. Methane does not last long under the conditions there and so it's already understood that it must be being produced by some process, be it biological or geochemical. Or perhaps one of the Martian rovers got clamped and they received a bill from Marvin the Martian :D
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Offline nicholas

Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2010, 12:44:30 AM »
This is certainly one way to bury bad news! ;)
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2010, 12:49:53 AM »
Quote from: nicholas;595764
This is certainly one way to bury bad news! ;)

Are you kidding? Only science geeks are going bother with this one.

I don't think the wikileaks stuff will be buried any time soon anyway. I wonder how much stuff there is in there?!
« Last Edit: December 01, 2010, 12:58:17 AM by Karlos »
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Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2010, 12:51:23 AM »
Wonder if they've found me home planet... :)

(I've been picking up some strange signals recently in that alien implant in me brain, or it might just be Channel 4 :()
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2010, 12:54:02 AM »
Quote from: Franko;595768
Wonder if they've found me home planet... :)

Either that, or they mistook something that evolved from your vindaloos for an alien life form.
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Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2010, 12:44:20 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;595770
Either that, or they mistook something that evolved from your vindaloos for an alien life form.


Speaking of which, Im just about to start making one of me slightly hot Vindaloos and have been trying to find the post where you recommended putting something in it... :)

I can't find the post and I know it wasn't a pepper, but pretty sure it was something green any chance you remember what it was yourself... :)

(Or is this what NASA is about to reveal... :))
 

Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2010, 03:05:10 PM »
Brocolli... :)

Im sure that was it... :)

Now I remember, I think I tried it and didn't like it... :(

Oh well, better start preparing it now... :)
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2010, 03:16:43 PM »
My advice was that if you are making a vegetable curry, Broccoli and even cauliflower work well.

Of course, broccoli is made of pure, naturally-refined win, but that's not the point here.
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Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2010, 03:57:54 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;596042
My advice was that if you are making a vegetable curry, Broccoli and even cauliflower work well.

Of course, broccoli is made of pure, naturally-refined win, but that's not the point here.


Wassa vegetable... :confused:

No wonder it's didn't taste good, Oh well, nice big pot of Vindaloo happily simmering away right now... :)
 

Offline adzTopic starter

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2010, 09:24:03 PM »
Linky...

Despite the hype, turns out it wasn't the kind of announcement I was expecting. Long story short, they have discovered bacteria that can thrive in arsenic. Read the article for the full story...
« Last Edit: December 02, 2010, 09:29:33 PM by adz »
 

Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2010, 09:32:32 PM »
Gawd... what a let down... :(

Now if they'd just see what can survive in one of my Vindaloos that would be impressive... :)
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2010, 09:33:45 PM »
Actually the thing that makes this a little more interesting than the discovery of arsenic using bacteria in 2008 is that these little bugs appear to have incorporated it into aspects their biochemistry to take over roles normally performed by phosphorous. I'm not sure how much (I can't imagine they are using DNA/RNA analogues that have arsenate instead of phosphate units) but it is very interesting nonetheless.

The theme of the announcement seems to be that our existing ideas of biochemistry perhaps need to be expanded to incorporate entirely novel chemistry that could depart significantly from that with which we are familiar. In doing so, a lot of new environments no longer seem quite as unlikely to harbour life and as there are many such environments on Earth, we should take a good long look here to broaden our understanding of what might be "out there"...
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Offline Franko

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2010, 09:53:42 PM »
In recent years science has found bacteria and other simple life forms in all sort of places that only a few decades ago (or less) was thought impossible, undersea volcanic vent's, inside rocks in the dried out mud flats of death vally and so on.

It's only mans current technical limits and level of knowledge and understanding of the life and the universe that we only know what we do today. To me it will come as no great surprise what current and future research may find and reveal about the existence of life however small it may be or in which environments it may live.

The only one thing I find odd about current science and the search for life (ie:SETI) is the presumption that other forms of life out their would use radio waves to communicate, just because we haven't broken past this barrier yet doesn't mean that other life forms haven't either. They may use some other currently unknown to us form of communication that we have yet to even dream of... Just a thought... :)
 

Offline whabang

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Re: NASA Astrobiology News Conference
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2010, 10:25:35 AM »
Pulses of infrared light.
Beating the dead horse since 2002.