Aliens?? [NASA Discovery Announcement]

buzd said

Why does Arsenic replacing Phosphorous in a cell imply independent evolutionary processes? Chemically, they are fairly similar atoms - they ionize the same way. Why wouldn't a mutation that allowed Phosphorous to replace Aresenic (or vice versa) be potentially part of the evolutionary process?

(though I agree that this is a monumental discovery, if that's the case).

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Possibly...which is why I think most are talking in terms of "different" versus "independent".

which will, at the very least, support the views of evolution. Lots of questions...lots of possibilites here and in the universe.

But even larger now is that planetary bodies, regardless of soild, liquid or gas, could harbor life in a form we were just not programmed to look for.