@SmokeyRivers: I think Google needs to define levels of beta. Google Talk is also technically in beta but, it's essentially a full release product.
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@verspasian: Heck, they just might have money to settle and then buy it outright if things get hairy.
@IDVariation: It's also streaming on Netflix.
@Link2187: Not to mention all the movies/music being downloaded.
@warsaw_andy: Is this the point where someone is suppose to say "That's no moon..."? Because if it is, I fucked it up.
@Brontolona: I think it's a given he's doing his best to meet your four criteria; one of the things about being good, decent, strong-willed, and self-confident is having life experience.
@BrendCh06: I like Dawkins. However, I think Brian Switek's book is perhaps a bit less antagonistic, as far as religion is concerned. He sticks to explaining the science.
@hurbieta: Does it? I don't think posing for nude pictures can equate to being comfortable being naked in front of a group of strangers and being felt up. Did I miss some subtle sarcasm here?
@GREGORYABUTLER10031: If you are a man, and express the reality of your experience here, you will get hit in the head with a comment or two.
@ewillse: True but, promiscuity-which is what the study is discussing- is not a social construct and merely a description of behavior.
@KyleW: However, the only way we would find such an environment outside of a lab would be on another planetary body. Now that we know it's possible, we can stop excluding phosphor-poor environments from our search for life.
@tande04: I guess that's what I get for not keeping up on my astrobiology.
@chauncy that billups: Though I think most people would grant that statistics are on the side of Earth merely being an uncommon occurrence; I would say that there is not enough data to make a conclusion in either direction. All this discovery does is increase the number of possible places from which to gather that…
@chauncy that billups: I think "nothing" is severe. It doesn't say that there will definitely be life in arsenic-rich environments but, it does show that what was once though impossible is now possible. In that sense it does say something about the possibility of life in non-terrestrial environments.
@tande04: Interesting! I think this is the first time I've seen a story about the research and a story about the results in the same year.
@Potentaint: If they turn into a semi-truck, we're OK but, if they turn into a gun, we're screwed.
@DGTLHRT: Those breathe arsenic in conjunction with photosynthesis to fuel the standard phosphor-based energy system the rest of us life forms use; this new bacteria replaces phosphor with arsenic, which is a big difference since that's exactly what kills the rest of us.
@trs: We won't know everything until the actual announcement but, this seems like a step beyond extremophiles. This little bug went past just using harsh chemicals to live and actually replaced phosphorus with arsenic as an energy transfer chemical, which no other known life form has done.
@CaptainValor: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!