As we found out today, all living beings are made up of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. All living beings that is, until GFAJ-1. This little guy uses arsenic as its building blocks instead of the usual maple or walnut used by humans. This information is very valuable to scientists, who will now know to look for poison in addition to the usual DNA materials when searching for new life on Earth and abroad.
GFAJ-1 at 5 micrometers, looking suspiciously like Rice KrispiesAccording to NASA's Ed Weiler, "The definition of life has just expanded." According to the European Union's directive 67/548/EEC, "Elemental arsenic and arsenic compounds are classified as 'toxic' and 'dangerous for the environment.'" This is all very exciting!
Well, I can understand your concern, but I hate to tell you that there's a bit more to the story. Turns out that this little beastie was actually taken from its Mono Lake home (swiped in the dead of night, no doubt, with out so much as a by-your-leave) by NASA scientist and trained to in the lab to replace phosphorous with closely-related element arsenic (higher atomic weight but same number of valence electrons - phosphorus's obese evil cousin). In other words, humans beings created this thing. If they want to kill us, it's only 'cause we made them that way. How's that for moral ambiguity, huh? Huh?
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Love, Phil Dirt
Those scientist bastards!
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