GFAJ-1 and Capella

This is Mono Lake. It lies in the middle of a barren expanse of desert near the California-Nevada border. It has a salinity that shifts back and forth between two and three times higher than the average salinity of the ocean. The primary life that exists in this extreme environment is brine shrimp and alkali flies; migratory birds also frequent the lake, providing a vital resting stop on their trip down south.

This lake has become one of the most important bodies of water in the world because of something that is nanometers in size that breaks one of the key rules of life on Earth. Until now, as we understood it, life was thought to center around six key elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous. A bacteria discovered in oxygen absent mud, named GFAJ-1, was found to use arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, in the backbone of it's DNA rather than phosphorous. Arsenic is poisonous to life because of its ability to mimic phosphorous leads to disruption of metabolic pathways.

I know--this is very sciencey. But this bacteria has just changed our definition of life. Take a moment to appreciate this by thinking about everything you know about math, such as two plus two equals four, and try to convince yourself that there will ever be a time when it doesn't.

I know, right? Kinda mind boggling. This little bacteria is breaking all the rules...those rules may never have existed in the first place. GFAJ-1 has taught us that life outside our planet may be different from us in ways we can't even conceive of yet. This microbe just opened the door to the very real possibility of life on another world.

In honor of GFAJ-1 and all the knowledge its discovery has bestowed upon us, I have written a brief story. I'll probably do more with it in the future, but right now I'm too busy panicking about finals to focus on too much.

Capella

The lights of the planet faded into the distance as the rocket climb higher and higher into the deep. The haze of the atmosphere began to dissolve and it too faded to blackness. Before Capella's eyes lay the boundless elegance of the universe. Stars twinkled like smiles thousands of light years away, as though they were welcoming back home.

She pressed her face closer to the viewing window of their craft, hoping that if she got close enough to the wonders of the outside she would understand them, be able to shape them with her hands. "We are passing your constellation, Capella," Einath called to her from the pilot's chair.

She cocked her head to see past him. In the distance she could see the golden glow Auriga the Charioteer. "I believe you are the northern most one?" he said, gesturing to the most brilliant in the system. "Yes," she said, smiling. "And you are the southern."

Many minutes passed as they both gazed at the stars they had been named for; how appropriate it seemed now as they rushed past them at speeds only light ever exceeded that they were picked for this voyage. Eventually, the glow of their stars was consumed by the darkness and new ones took their place in front of their eyes: Taurus, Orion, Monoceros, Hydra and finally came Libra, the scales--the place they had been sent to.

In the distance loomed a massive glowing red orb named Gliese 581. The red dwarf was only two thirds the mass of her home star and was significantly dimmer, but it was a marvel to her. Little flair jumped off its surface and twirled in the air like dancers before drifting back to the surface. "We are here," Einath said as the craft slung shot past the star and head toward a large, blue planet. "Gliese 581g."

"They are so similar, aren't they?" Capella pondered. "More so than we had even hoped. What do you think it is like down there?" She had to restrain herself from pressing her nose to the glass.

"The same as the pictures," Einath said dryly.

"Of course," she answered, perhaps a little sharper than she had intended. "But what do you think it's like? Do you think it will feel like home?"

"No."

"That's it? Just plain 'No'? I swear sometimes you can be so dull."

Einath considered this for a moment, "I wasn't aware I was expected to elaborate on my answer."

She sighed. "That is how conversation works. I talk then you talk and then I comment on what you said and so on."

She was met with silence.

"You are hopeless."

He sighed. "I do hate to interrupt your philosophical ponderings about the planet we're about to land on, but I would appreciate a few minutes of silence as I try to land this multi-billion dollar space craft without killing all of us."

This literally ends where I started falling asleep last night, I hope you enjoyed it and, like I said before, I'll probably work more on it in the coming weeks.