Dear readers, I present a ticket that was written by a friend of mine who wants to share his knowledge! Happy reading!
November 29, 2010. NASA announces a conference to say the least catchy. Its purpose? Discuss a discovery in astrobiology whose impact will affect the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Finally! We are not alone! Speculate kids! Little green men, black, hairy, hairless, anthropomorphic cannibals, gifted with words, inferior in size, superior in mind, peaceful, aggressive, I could give here more than 42 good reasons why the announcement has sparked some emotion in me than scientific fiction of course any scientific reason. Scientific reason that would necessarily attract my eye to those attending the conference, including one that will prove to be the star of this event: Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a member of the research center for astrobiology at NASA, a researcher at the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey).
Geology? In Alf goodbye, Mr. Spock, Widget and Stitch is actually on Earth that is the "discovery" in the depths of Mono Lake in California to be exact. Item communicator, trace of life alienates or spacecraft sunk here is a bacterium that is here to talk about it. Its specificity? The substitutability of arsenic to phosphorus in particular in the synthesis of DNA. If substitution is not mandatory (it only appears in Arsenic-rich medium and low in phosphorus) it nevertheless raises the question about the "necessity" of phosphorus supposed to live.
Beyond the scientific debate that the article published in the journal Science, causes, is communication from NASA about this discovery plot. For this article, no mention of exobiology. Would it be swept under the carpet corrections? Still, that Felisa Wolfe-Simon argues that this finding "opens the door to the possible existence of life elsewhere in the universe." But it is true that this finding extends the possibilities of emergence of life is still quite distant kick in the anthill. Because apart from the high concentration of arsenic in sediments of Mono Lake, we remain in an environment quite classic.
So why such an announcement effect?
One might think here as NASA tries to regild a shield that tarnishes from year to year. End of spaceflight in 2011, canceling the program to return humans to the Moon, aging facilities, the U.S. can be seen in astrobiology an opportunity to justify its maintenance and its financing. And nothing like a good buzz to talk about oneself at a lower cost.
But the battle for funding are also on the part of researchers and sometimes forces forced a reconciliation between two research themes initially distant. Would it be reasonable to assume here that Felisa Wolfe-Simon has stirred under the nose of the agency's Astrobiology red rag to get the means to conduct research requiring substantial material resources? Hard to say. Note however that the young researcher in 2009 published a first article suggesting the possibility for bacteria to substitute arsenate to phosphate in DNA synthesis.
The famous
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