Life Built With Toxic Chemical: First Known Microbe on Earth Able to Thrive and Reproduce Using Arsenic

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eeek

Life Built With Toxic Chemical: First Known Microbe on Earth Able to Thrive and Reproduce Using Arsenic
December 02, 2010 02:55PM

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Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101202140622.htm

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Frank Furter

Re: Life Built With Toxic Chemical: First Known Microbe on Earth Able to Thrive and Reproduce Using Arsenic
December 02, 2010 04:07PM

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Registered: 15 years ago
Posts: 1,942

Life finds a way to develop. Extremophiles seem to be found everywhere on earth given sufficient time to opportunity to occupy a niche. Even the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana:
http://discovermagazine.com/2000/dec/featnewlife/

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan