So, has NASA actually found life out there?

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

They're going to announce that the entire next project they do will be funded solely on Sammy's tax money. They've been sequestering it and saving it just for this moment.

They know how much you love having NASA around, and they want to reward you in this way.

Says the ungrateful social parasite who got paid with tax money that was wasted on stoopid and extremely expensive projects.
Must be nice to produce nothing in return for billions of dollars and gets raises for doing it. You might at least say thank you as you bend over the taxpayer.

BTW, back to the original statement:

The reality may be less dramatic, though still intriguing: Based on the background of the four conference participants NASA cites, the announcement will probably concern lifeforms that live off of poisonous arsenic. Popular blogger Jason Kottke and others have concluded that the announcement will tie into the quest for life on the Martian moon Titan.

"I'd say that they've discovered arsenic on Titan and maybe even detected chemical evidence of bacteria utilizing it for photosynthesis," Kottke theorizes, a hypothesis short of actually confirming alien life.

He notes that geobiologist Pamela Conrad was the primary author of a 2009 paper on geology and life on Mars, while oceanographer Felisa Wolfe-Simon has written extensively on photosynthesis using arsenic. Biologist Steven Benner is on the "Titan Team" at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; they're looking at Saturn's largest moon as an early-Earth-like chemical environment. And ecologist James Elser is involved with a NASA-funded astrobiology program called Follow the Elements, which studies the chemistry of environments where life evolves, not just water, carbon or oxygen.
FoxNews.com - Rumor Roundup: Has NASA Discovered Alien Life?

Howz that pwnage feel?

[71T Targa]

Originally Posted by looneybin

maybe they are going to announce that the Beatles are going to be played on the space station

I thought Big Head Todd was going to be played on the space station?

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Says the ungrateful social parasite who got paid with tax money that was wasted on stoopid and extremely expensive projects.
Must be nice to produce nothing in return for billions of dollars and gets raises for doing it. You might at least say thank you as you bend over the taxpayer.

I wish my research was funded with billions of dollars! No, I, like nearly all of the grant research out there, did my work on a pittance. How you might know that it was stoopid and extremely expensive, I'll never know. I considered it to be good important work, which contributed to the greater knowledge of the specific subject, and which might, at some future time, help protect all of humanity from devastation.

I know you've done at least as much for all of humanity, right?

BTW, back to the original statement:
Howz that pwnage feel?

Did you degrade to second grade? Nope, must be first, because even a second grader knows more than the Fox News blogger and you. Titan is not a Martian moon. Hell, that was made clear!

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by 71T Targa

I thought Big Head Todd was going to be played on the space station?

no, only the Monsters will play

[RWebb]

good lord, sammy - slink back to PARF if you cannot control yourself in civilized society; even a dig deserves some control in response


I must point out, however, that "pittance" in physics has a completely different definition than the term "pittance" does in biology!

[Hugh R]

Webb and I agree on something!!

I worked on physics projects at MIT in the summers as a college student (no I didn't go there), and some biology (aquatic) research grant projects as well. "Small" physics grants are several orders of magnitude more $ than biology ones.

[Pazuzu]

Let's presume for a moment that NASA is going to discuss the possibility of life on Titan.

They won't be saying "there might be life on Titan", that's not news, it's been expected for decades.

They won't say "we've seen visual cues of life on Titan". Again, known for years at least.

They won't say "found chemical signatures in the atmosphere of organic processes on Titan". Yup, known for decades again, and verified in various ways more recently.

Hell, Carl Sagan (back when he did research) showed that when you try to make the primordial Earth's atmosphere, you're likely to get one parameter wrong, and you end up with Titan's atmosphere. Same ingredients, same environment, and they're kissing cousins.

No, if they're having a full blown, embargoed press conference that is being discussed on every forum I've wandered through this week, we're talking about something BIG. We're not talking about methane and arsenic, we're talking about complex and heavy carbon chain molecules seen in the atmosphere, AND heat plumes/localized heat distributions, AND specific methane associated molecules that are directly shown to be related to microbial activity, AND probably something else.



Maybe they found God up there.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Webb and I agree on something!!

I worked on physics projects at MIT in the summers as a college student (no I didn't go there), and some biology (aquatic) research grant projects as well. "Small" physics grants are several orders of magnitude more $ than biology ones.

"small" astronomy grants aren't You probably spend more on shoes each year than my professional grants were...

[trekkor]

A press conference of guesses...

Can't wait!


KT

[Rick V]

[RPKESQ]

Originally Posted by trekkor

A press conference of guesses...

Can't wait!


KT

Sorry, but it is not a religious press conference.


When was that you guys predicted the end of the world? And how many times?

[dhoward]

That's what I'M talkin' about.
(Referencing alien chick...)

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Webb and I agree on something!!

...

I believe Paul and I agreed 2x this year... could be a record.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

...

we're talking about complex and heavy carbon chain molecules seen in the atmosphere, AND heat plumes/localized heat distributions, AND specific methane associated molecules that are directly shown to be related to microbial activity, AND probably something else.

...

what might the something else be?

hot green skinned chicks who are studying the long chain C-molecules?

[imcarthur]

We're all gonna die.



Ian

[silver912e]

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
-- Kent Brockman

[Schumi]

You all f****** fail.


Titan is a moon of Saturn, not Mars.

[slakjaw]

Originally Posted by Rick V

I pray this is it!

[Pazuzu]

So, Sammy's FoxNews blogger obviously got some scooped info, but he got his report all wrong. So sad. I don't know what's worse, that a Fox blogger got info handed to him, or that he can't even bother to contact someone with a basic astronomical education to teach him what's in front of him.

It's not bacteria that live off of arsenic. It's microbes that have replaced phosphorus IN THEIR DNA with arsenic.

They have taken one of the 6 vital building blocks of life, and replaced it with something completely different.

Ask the biologists here if that's a big deal or not.

[Green 912]

"Its full of stars!"