Darn, I was just getting my “Save the Arsenic Bug” scam set up. I missed the whole “Global Warming” scam, but I figured NASA might get some mileage out of this one too. Where’s Al Baby when you need him??
I am sure any number of criticisms could be tossed at this particular project but so far the only ones we see on this thread are unsubstantiated opinions.
Doesn't mean NASA proved anything, but nobody else proved anything either.
My immediate thought was that this could be part of a long term program to return Mono Lake to its original state ~ whatever that was. Right now it's simply a salt lake. Before Los Angeles tapped into its sources in the surrounding mountains it was brackish at worst.
If that were the objective, it failed. At the moment what we have is an ENDANGERED SPECIES and it'll have to be protected by leaving Mono Lake at it's saltiest worst.
You'd think Conservatives would immediately see the marvelous spectacle of the EPA now having to protect something it has worked years to destroy!
Then we have the EVOs who would see in this the opportunity to have a species in hand that has OBSERVABLY EVOLVED. Flipping a base pair is one thing. Replacing its chemistry is quite another ~ actually gives you an entirely new form of life.
The next step for the EVOs is to FIND SOME MORE OF THIS SOMEWHERE ELSE ~ and, if you read the NASA report carefully they are getting set to do that at another delightful vacation spot out in the wilderness.
The CREOs ought to also get in on this. A new form of life is right up their alley. Obviously God can create life more than once, right? And here it is ~ an alternative chemistry that can live in salt brine with mine-able levels of arsenic. Doesn't that put to the torch the idea that ALL LIFE on earth is derived from but a single cell that created itself one time?
Well, anyway, maybe the EVOs and CREOs will hop on this like a bunny rabbit on clover ~ or maybe not. I think it's great. Finally an environmental issue BOTH SIDES can use on each other, and a debate on the efficacy and utility of evolution ~ if it really exists after all.
I see blood in the water on this one.