dagblog - Comments for "OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE"

But now of course NASA will

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:54:27 +0000

In reply to But you know the tea-baggers

But now of course NASA will screw it up so the microbes should be patented and privatized--should be good for clearing out some sludge in land fills. Sounds like a good start-up--what's Neil Bush doing these days? Does the tea bag claim also support the bible belt's geological timeline of 6,000 years?

But you know the tea-baggers

Beetlejuice — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:45:58 +0000

In reply to OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE

But you know the tea-baggers are gonna claim that all those A-bomb tests to the east in Nevada cracked the time continuum allowing some of the space aliens being held at Area-51 to escape and morph themselves into a caustic lifeforms knowing we not only couldn't comprehend such lifeforms much less look for one under our noses that didn't follow our model of carbon-based bags of water.

AT, that's a great clip. I

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:55:31 +0000

In reply to Science Friday had one of the

AT, that's a great clip. I really do love geeks.

Science Friday had one of the

Elusive Trope — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:41:55 +0000

In reply to OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE

Science Friday had one of the scientists with project. Here is the beginning of the interview:

Ira Flatow: ....And, well, rather than me babbling on, let me bring on Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon. She's the lead author on that Science paper, and she is a NASA astrobiology research fellow in the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. Welcome to the program.
Dr. FELISA WOLFE-SIMON (NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow, NASA Astrobiology Institute, U.S. Geological Survey): Oh, hi, how are you?
FLATOW: How excited are you?
Dr. WOLFE-SIMON: I am thrilled.
FLATOW: Tell us why.
Dr. WOLFE-SIMON: Well, I've been thinking about some time, and what I like to joke is that I've been known for being an exception to the rule myself. And so I think a lot about just being different and what it means to be different. And if you don't know that you're different, then you're normal to you. And so we discovered a microbe, my team and I, that does something different.
So all life we know of I'll back for a moment and remind of something we learned in high school all life we know of requires carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and sulfur. And it uses those elements to make DNA and RNA, so that's like your information technology of the cell; proteins, those are your molecular machines and some scaffolding; and fats and lipids. So that separates you from everything else. So those six elements are required for the three biological pieces in a cell.
The microbe we've discovered appears to be able to use arsenic, if not given any phosphorous, and...
FLATOW: But arsenic kills us. Why doesn't it kill the bacteria?
Dr. WOLFE-SIMON: That's an interesting question, and in fact, that's one of the things that I was really thinking about when I first came up with this hypothesis I published a few years ago.
And just thinking as a biochemist, and arsenic is toxic, arsenate in particular, because it looks like phosphate to your cells, my cells and just about everything else that we can think of.
FLATOW: Ah, so if the cell takes up the arsenic instead of the phosphate, and we say bye-bye.
Dr. WOLFE-SIMON: Basically, and let me give you another example because toxicity I think is in the eye of the beholder. We breathe oxygen, but we know that a large portion of the microbes on Earth, oxygen is toxic. So I think toxicity is kind of an interesting inkling. You know, what's bad for you and I, may not be bad for something else.

The part I really like is in the beginning where she relates her own disconnect from the crowd as being different with something based on arsenic rather than phropherous. Now that is a geek I can relate to.

Thanks for that note. Your

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:33:42 +0000

In reply to There is an interesting

Thanks for that note. Your further description gives me the urge to get back up there. Sounds as if you like it also. If I remember correctly they have traced pieces of that obsidian hundreds of miles away.

I don't think I'll be doing the kind of hiking and back packing I once did, but since bringing Reds Meadow Pack Station back to mind, I am seriously thinking of going that route--love to see those mountains one more time, although I'm guessing those glaciers are now missing. Sad thought.

Thanks for stopping by. The

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:24:00 +0000

In reply to I'm glad you issued such a

Thanks for stopping by. The save Mono Lake effort was to divert some of the water back into the lake and I think the effort was successful.

There is an interesting

NCD — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:02:22 +0000

In reply to OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE

There is an interesting geologic feature of another type a bit south of Mono Lake, to the west of 395 called 'Glass Mountain'. A forest service dirt road cuts off and just south of that road is a huge hill made of obsidian, from a volcanic eruption 1 million years ago. It is the largest obsidian feature I have ever seen. There are obsidian blocks 6-8 feet in diameter, that rolled off the main body, which rises 30-50 feet and must be hundreds of yards in across, and with great care, you can climb up on to the top of it. I know there are small pieces of obsidian around Mono Lake also, which must have also been a volcanic crater. Glass Mountain is marked on the road, and the feature is just north of Mammoth Lakes to the west, 395, coming north, rises up to the cutoff, and as it sits high on the edge of a volcanic caldera that is about the same age and which extends all the way to Bishop.

I'm glad you issued such a

we are stardust — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 03:59:15 +0000

In reply to OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE

I'm glad you issued such a directed invitation to stop by, Oxy. Don't know nuffin' about poetry, but I sure did like your poem; the images, the plea, and especially the 'little arsenic souls in heaven' part.

It's hard to stop the slideshow, isn't it? Some photography! My fave was the time-lapse night one, with the moon phases and all.

A friend of ours lived at Mono Lake for a few years, back when it was still pronounced "Mah-no." ;o) He got involved in the Save Mono Lake effort, though I forget the particulars. Was it about not diverting the streams that feed it?

Yes, it's a very spiritual

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:07:10 +0000

In reply to It's nice to hear a first

Yes, it's a very spiritual place, and you're right, there is no swimming. Lots of brine shrimp but no humans or fish. Twain described it as pure "lye". There's a bit of camping around but it's isolated. The lake was highly saline in Twain's time and after L.A. diverted the incoming streams the lake dropped 25 feet and the salinity doubled.The flies are described by the current scientists as "scuba divers"--fortunately they are not bothersome to humans like Vermont black flies which head right for the corners of your eyes. I thought it was fascinating that NASA scientists compare the lake to a landing site on Mars, the Gusev Crater, and they theorize they might find traces of this arsenic eating microbe there. Thanks for your comment.

Thanks, Lisa.

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:55:10 +0000

In reply to Lovely. Both the poem, and

Thanks, Lisa.