Quantum


HEALTH


Issue 8 December 2010


Above: Web Picture of the desolate but beautiful Mono Lake. http://www.monolake.org/


NASA Research finds arsenic thriving-bacteria in Mono Lake, forever changing the definition of life


Who would have thought that Mono Lake, which is set at the edge of the Sierra Nevadas and the Great Desert Basin of California, would be the hub of excitement for NASA Scientists? Set amidst sagebrush and desert with a mountainous backdrop; this supposedly dead lake is the source of discoveries that may alter future biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond our planet.


The history of Mono Lake’s fate began in 1941 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverted its tributary streams 350 miles south to meet the growing water needs of Los Angeles. Deprived of its freshwater sources, the lake’s volume quickly reduced to half its size whilst its salinity doubled. Unable to adapt, the eco system eventually began to collapse. It became unlivable with its high salinity, high alkalinity, and high levels of arsenic.


The reason for the current excitement at Mono Lake is that researchers have found the first known organism on Earth–a bacterial strain known as GFAJ-1–that is able to thrive in an arsenic rich environment, as well as substitute


16 Quantum Health


arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components, even incorporating it into its DNA.


Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth, but now the GFAJ-1 has opened doors for new possibilities for life formation. Felisa Wolfe-Simon*, the research team’s lead scientist and NASA astrobiology research fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California says: “If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven’t seen yet?” *


“The definition of life has just expanded,” says Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it.”**


For more information about the finding and a complete list of researchers, visit: http:// astrobiology.nasa.gov http://www.monolake.org/


www.quantumhealthmagazine.com


Science in the News


by Heather McGee-Parkin


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68