Via Tobias Buckell, I learned that Gizmodo has apparently found out what the big news is that NASA will hold a press conference about later today. Apparently a form of extremophile bacteria has been discovered on Earth which has a different chemical make-up to it’s DNA than all other known forms of life on this planet.
It isn’t extraterrestrial life, but it does suggest that Star Trek is right that we need to cast our net more widely than “life as we know it” as we undertake that search.
UPDATE: Apparently the British newspaper The Sun broke the news yesterday. This second form of terrestrial life was found in a California lake with high concentrations of arsenic, and actually uses arsenic in its composition where all other known living things on the planet use phosphorous.
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