Photo credit: Sathish J

The NASA press conference today announced the discovery of GFAJ-1, a new life form that’s unlike any other living thing on Earth because it’s “capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes.” Continue reading for videos of the announcement.

NASA’s geobiologist Pamela Conrad thinks that the discovery is huge and “phenomenal,” comparing it to the Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise crew finds Horta, a silicon-based alien life form that can’t be detected with tricorders because it wasn’t carbon-based. It’s like saying that we may be looking for new life in the wrong places with the wrong methods.

[via Gizmodo]

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