Phantoms and Monsters

Alien Gods: Anu, Lord of the Great Above
Fortean / Oddball News: Alien Faces, Pre-Rapture Jewelry Sale and Haitian Witchcraft Fears
NASA's Extraterrestrial Life News Wasn't Necessarily About Aliens

Alien Gods: Anu, Lord of the Great Above

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:19 AM PST

Anu in flight

Arguments can be made that the evidence for ancient astronauts comes from supposed gaps in historical and archaeological records, and they also maintain that absent or incomplete explanations of historical or archaeological data point to the existence of ancient astronauts. The evidence is said to include archaeological artifacts that are beyond the presumed technical capabilities of the historical cultures with which they are associated. This also includes artwork and legends that are interpreted as depicting extraterrestrial contact or technologies.

Notwithstanding these contentions, let us say that there is an axiom to the ancient astronaut theory. Then we need to ask, who were these beings? What did they represent to the inhabitants of earth? Where these beings the ancient Gods of antiquity?

I would like to periodically chronicle my speculation of how the native people interpreted these unknown entities. This edition describes Anu, Lord of the Great Above.

To the Sumerians and all of Mesopotamia, Anu was a sky-god, the god of heaven, lord of constellations, and the father not only of all the gods but also of evil spirits and demons, most prominently the demoness Lamashtu, who preyed on infants. He was the father of the Anunnaku (also spelled Anunnaki). It was believed that he had the power to judge those who had committed crimes and that he had created the stars as soldiers to destroy the wicked. His attribute was a royal tiara decorated with two pairs of bull horns. His symbol resembles somewhat like a Maltese cross, representing as it appears the four points of the compass and hence the entire heavens. His bow, which is frequently mentioned, can probably be identified as the Milky Way.

Anu possesses vast powers of an unknown nature, which seem to surpass the powers of any other Mesopotamian god. Magical in their form and nature, these powers can be employed in numerous forms. He can project rays of mystical forms resembling modern lasers that can explode on impact and erect shields and objects such as thrones and ships from this energy. He can also create dimensional portals at will to travel between earth and heaven and create spells that augment or enforce spells already in existence. He can project his image, voice or energy bolts from heaven to earth and even place bondage spells powerful enough of bonding individuals to certain realms. Anu seems to have limited precognitive and sensory awareness to perceive facts and information from beyond time and space.

Anu was considered part of a triad including Enlil, god of the air and Enki, god of water. In the Code of Hammurabi it is said that then the goddess Inanna (or Antum) of Ereck may at one time have been his consort. Anu is so prominently associated with the city of Erech in southern Babylonia that there are good reasons for believing this place to have been the original seat of the Anu cult. Anu was the god of the 'great above', and the son of the first pair of gods, Ansar and Kisar, descendant of Apsu and Tiamat.

In the Sumerian cosmology there was, first of all, the primeval sea, from which was born the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven, 'An', and earth, 'Ki'. They were separated by Enlil, then Anu carried off the heavens, and Enlil the earth.

According to the Earth Chronicles series by Zecharia Sitchin, the wife of Anu was a fertility goddess and the mother of the gods; her cult was centered in Munster. However, Anu was one of the Anunnaki who came from the planet Nibiru (Marduk). According to Sitchin's theories on Sumerian legend and lore, the Anunnaki arrived first on Earth probably 400,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined gold in Africa.

After ruling for 9 years of his own, Anu was dethroned by his son, Enlil. There have been comparisons with the myth of Anu's dethronement to that of the Greek myth concerning Zeus and his father, Cronos. Like Cronos, Anu was castrated by his son with a bronze sickle.

Anu cursed Enlil to have three miserable sons for his disobedience and escaped. He retires to the upper heavens where Anu welcomed most of the gods into this new realm he called Celestial Dilmun, but Enlil, now calling himself Dagon, was soon overthrown by his brother Hadad, now called Baal. He confined both of them to Earth and after both of them were ousted as rulers, he confined both of them to separate kingdoms in the underworld. From the heavens, Anu reclaimed his role as King of the gods.

Fortean / Oddball News: Alien Faces, Pre-Rapture Jewelry Sale and Haitian Witchcraft Fears

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 07:51 AM PST

Alien Faces

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NOTE: These 2 videos have been floating around the internet...supposed 'alien' faces. I have very sincere doubts, but fun to look at...you decide. Lon

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Jeweler Promote Pre-Rapture Sale

duluthnewstribune - Larry Falter, owner of Superior's LTD Jewelers, hit upon a novel idea for his latest TV commercial — blending a storewide sale with his belief that the second coming of Jesus is near.

After opening with the trumpeting of horns and a glimpse of a land assailed by fire and lighting, the 30-second ad shows Falter in his store, stating his belief that as he reads the news "we are really close" to the Day of the Lord and the return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem.

"Nonetheless, here and now, if you want jewelry, I have access to millions," he then says. And it's all on sale at 50 percent off during his Second Coming sale.

"I thought, 'I am going to have some fun here, be bold about my faith position and make a commercial that would tell people how I believe things are in the world' " before transitioning into a sales ad, Falter, 65, said Wednesday.

"I'm trying to be upfront with my faith and my position," he said. "If anybody wants to see my jewelry or talk about the Lord's coming, I'm here."

Falter, the head elder for Beth Yeshaa Twin Ports, a Messianic Congregation, made the ad after returning from a trip to Israel earlier this year. It began airing on two Duluth stations in early November. It will continue to air through most of December.

The blend of apocalyptic imagery with a jewelry sale has raised eyebrows.

"The first thing that crossed my mind was the line 'Diamonds are forever,' and I thought, 'Is he going to go there with that?' And he didn't," Michael Gatlin, Vineyard Christian Fellowship senior pastor, said after viewing the commercial.

"For me, from a theological prospective, I don't find it helpful at all," he said.

Gatlin worked in marketing for years as an art director.

"At that level, I can't picture anyone rushing out to buy jewelry because the Day of the Lord is imminent," he said. "Other than that, I just find that stuff kind of sadly humorous."

Falter has received a few calls and store visits from people wanting to talk about the commercials.

"If Jesus really is coming back, why would I want diamonds?" Falter said one person asked. But so far he's only received one negative comment. It came from a Buddhist who was uncomfortable with Falter mixing faith and selling jewelry in an ad.

In addition to the TV ad, Falter is using a large banner outside his Tower Avenue store to advertise his Second Coming sale.

"It's giving me the opportunity to talk to people about things that maybe I wouldn't have normally mixed in during my business day," he said of the campaign.

The campaign is attracting attention beyond the Twin Ports area. The ad has been posted on YouTube and at least one other website. Bloggers and Minnesota Public Radio have mentioned it or interviewed a somewhat surprised Falter.

"I wasn't expecting to get any attention," he said.

So far, no one has asked Falter why, if he believes the Second Coming is near, he just doesn't give the jewelry away. But he has a ready answer.

"I have ethical obligations to people I owe money to," he said. "If I couldn't discharge those ethical responsibilities, I wouldn't be giving a very good witness. I don't want to profit at someone else's expense."

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Haitian Mob Kills 12 Over Fear of Cholera Spread by Witchcraft

afp - Tensions simmered in Haiti Thursday with its political future hanging in the balance, as protesters renewed charges of vote-rigging and cholera fears led to deadly mob violence.

As vote-counting continued ahead of the expected release of preliminary results on Tuesday, candidates in last weekend's presidential and legislative elections remained split over whether to endorse the outcome.

With the impoverished Caribbean nation in limbo, several hundred opposition demonstrators peacefully took to the streets of Port-au-Prince seeking annulment of the vote to determine the successor to Rene Preval.

"Arrest Preval!... Cancel the Election!" the protesters shouted as they made their way to the headquarters of the election commission, which was guarded by blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers and Haitian anti-riot police.

"Our message is clear: We want Preval to go and we do not want elections with him in power," said candidate Jacques Edouard Alexis.

Twelve of the 18 contenders rejected Sunday's election shortly after polls closed, but the following day longtime opposition leader and pre-election favorite Mirlande Manigat and popular musician Michel Martelly, another leading candidate, reversed their calls for the polls to be scrapped.

An unexpected admission from the ruling INITE (UNITY) party that its candidate Jude Celestin may have lost has fueled a sense that Haiti could experience a political watershed if the dysfunctional, failing nation is able to manage a relatively peaceful transition of power.

International monitors -- while acknowledging widespread problems including violence and claims of fraud -- declared the elections valid. Final results are expected on December 20.

But the stubborn cholera epidemic, which has claimed more than 1,800 lives since mid-October, cast a shadow over the first election since a massive earthquake tore the country apart in January, killing some 250,000 people.

The epidemic took a ghastly turn Thursday when officials revealed that at least 12 people had been stoned or hacked to death in the last week by angry mobs accusing them of trying to spread cholera through witchcraft.

"Their corpses were burned in the streets" in the far southwest area of Grand Anse, the region in Haiti least affected by the disease, local prosecutor Kesner Numa told AFP.

"These people were accused (by the mobs) of witchcraft related to cholera," said Numa, adding that their attackers believed the victims were trying to "plant a substance that spreads the disease in the region."

Local communities were refusing to cooperate with investigations of the killings there, officials said.

Suspicion about the outbreak has swept through Haiti, where many accuse UN peacekeepers of having imported the disease.

According to the latest official cholera tally, 1,817 people have died and a total of 80,860 cases have been recorded, with 36,207 hospitalizations.

On Wednesday the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said the epidemic continued to spread throughout the country but was less lethal.

"We went from nine percent of cases dying in the early days to 2.3 percent now," said Donna Eberwine-Villagran, a spokeswoman for PAHO, a local branch of the World Health Organization.

She warned, however, that the official toll was an underestimation, and that Haiti could see up to 400,000 infections over the next 12 months.

Amid the epidemic and the election tensions, the president's already tarnished image suffered further with the release of a leaked US diplomatic cable that portrayed him as seeking to "orchestrate" the vote.

"Close friends speculate that many of Preval's actions during the past year... stem from his very real fear that politics will prohibit him from returning to private life in Haiti after his presidency," a June 2009 cable by Washington's then-ambassador said.

"Thus, they argue, his overriding goal is to orchestrate the 2011 presidential transition in such a way as to ensure that whoever is elected will allow him to go home unimpeded."

Haiti has been plagued by dictatorships and political upheaval, and several past leaders have fled or been forced into exile, including Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president.

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Spray-On Stem Cells Heal Burns Fast

ksl - A spray solution of a patient's own stem cells is healing their severe burns. So far, early experiments under a University of Utah pilot project are showing some remarkable results.

What was once a serious burn on Kaye Adkins foot is healing nicely now because of a topical spray. With diabetes as a complication, the small but open wound had not healed after weeks of failed treatments.

Dr. Amalia Cochran with the university's Burn Care Center says, "With a wound that is open for several months, as this patient suffered prior to seeing us in our burn clinic, we worry about a pretty heavy bacterial load there."

But enter the evolutionary world of regenerative medicine, using almost a bedside stem cell technique that takes only about 15 minutes. With red cells removed, a concentrate of platelets and progenitor cells is combined with calcium and thrombin. The final mixture looks almost like Jello.

"I woke up and saw them with this big thin, looked like a needle, and I said you're going to put that in my foot? And they said NO, we're going to spray," Adkins said.

Though her own skin graft had failed before, the topical spray was used during a second graft. It "took" and healed. "I had never heard of anything like that. It was just amazing," Adkins said.

Adkins burn is healing and so is her heart. Coincidentally, stem cells were used during her bypass surgery five weeks ago to hasten healing for that procedure as well. While hundreds of heart patients have had stem cell treatments, burn patients are still few in numbers.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Amit Patel and burn care surgeon Amalia Cochran are experimenting on small burns for now. But down the road, both are hoping for large scale clinical trials on patients with much larger burns.

Patel asks, "Can we accelerate healing or improve healing. Then it's the quality of healing. And then, we hopefully advance to decreasing the scarring process completely."

"It's my hope that in my career," Cochran adds, "stem cells will completely revolutionize how we're able to take care of patients. Not just with small burns that are challenging to heal, but with massive burn injuries as well."

The military is keeping a close eye on the Utah project. The future for treating burns on soldiers could stagger the imagination even more. Patel says "regrowing your own skin in a bioreactor is very realistic and that's not five years away even. We start with a biological band aid and hope to end up with basically synthetic skin that's still derived from your own cells."

In this dream of regenerative medicine, Patel believes we can only imagine a day when sheets of pristine skin might be available to any patient off the shelf.

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An electronic crosswalk sign near the Maple Street Bridge in Spokane, WA is apparently showing its disapproval of either the weather and / or local drivers by giving people the middle finger.

The crossing sign, located in downtown Spokane in the northbound lanes of Maple south of the Maple Street Bridge, has been somehow modified so when the 'Don't Walk' hand is displayed, only the upraised middle finger is visible.

City of Spokane spokesperson Marlene Feist says that street department personnel think the electronic sign may have snow somehow wedged into the sign, obscuring all but the palm and raised middle finger.

Feist added that clearly the display is "unintentional."

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Poultry Firm Under Review After Man Decapitated

abc.net.au - Already under investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman, Australia's largest poultry manufacturer, Baiada, has now been cited by WorkSafe Victoria over the death of a contract worker at one of its plants.

In August this year Sarel Singh, 34, died instantly when fast moving machinery he was cleaning decapitated him.

A preliminary report on the workplace death, obtained by Lateline, has found Baiada breached occupational health and safety laws by not controlling the risks at the plant.

Six weeks ago, Lateline revealed how Baiada poultry was under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant workforce.

Tim Kennedy from the National Union of Workers is horrified by the incident.

"It is absolutely horrific in a civilised society that we have now the fact that these things still occur, it is just not acceptable," he said.

Four years ago, Sarel Singh risked everything to find his fortune in Australia.

His brother, Harry Singh, says Sarel took out a large bank loan in his home state of Punjab to fund the relocation.

"Yes he was excited at that time. He was looking for a job - he can't get it here. Then he tried to get to Australia and have some study over there afterwards and have a job over there, for a better life," he said.

After graduating, Sarel worked as a taxi driver before getting married.

He then joined the Ecowize company, which has a contract to clean the production areas of the Baiada poultry processing plant in Melbourne's west.

"He used to say that life working at that place was like a hell. It's a very hard job and he was tired of that job. But due to the burden of the loans and debts over here and in Australia too, he had to work over there and he was struggling hard," Harry Singh said.

However, Sarel Singh was ready to give up and go back to India. But on August 12 he was killed at work.

Sarel had actually finished his four-hour shift when he was told to go back and re-clean the pack line area.

Mr Kennedy from the National Union of Workers says Sarel was not familiar with the line.

"Now the line he went to was not a line that he normally cleaned. He did not have his full protection gear on in terms of glasses and helmet," he said.

According to the union, as Sarel was standing on a ladder hosing down the line, his jacket was hooked. He was swept into the next machine and decapitated.

The union says the chain line should be stopped while it is cleaned.

"Over time what has happened is the company, to maintain production, to maintain the returns they want to get, has pushed the risk to workers by speeding that chain up so they have run the chain 20 to 40 birds per minute and people have been asked to clean it," Mr Kennedy said.

"The night on which Mr Singh was killed the chain was running at absolute capacity ... 180 birds per minute."

Harry Singh cannot believe that he has lost his brother.

"How can I believe it? My brother, he was my real brother and only brother. I have no brothers else ... and just a great shock to me," he said.

"My mother is feeling shock. Very upset with this because she has lost her older son. She has gone, gone through lot of things throughout [her] life and sacrificed a lot. Sacrificed the pension on his loans. So tough life for her now."

WorkSafe Victoria was soon at the scene of Sarel Singh's death.

Its report, obtained by Lateline, found that the production line posed an injury risk.

It also confirmed the line was operating at the top speed of 183 birds per minute, and that "by not adequately controlling the risks associated with this plant [Baiada poultry] is in contravention of the requirements of section 21(1) and 21(2)(A) of the occupational health and safety act."

Baiada poultry was issued with a prohibition notice, informing the company it must assess and control the risk to workers.

WorkSafe Victoria inspectors returned the next day and found the risk assessment prepared by Baiada was inadequate.

After assuring WorkSafe there would be changes to the production line's power system, the plant was allowed to resume operations.

WorkSafe Victoria has told Lateline the entire meat and poultry industry is now under review.

It says when it comes to work safety, employers should do more than the bare minimum and has reminded employers they are responsible for all employees whether they are staff or on contract.

Lateline has sought comment from both Baiada and Ecowize about Sarel Singh's death.

Both declined an on-camera interview.

Lateline also submitted a series of questions to Baiada about the death and work safety conditions at its plants, but there has been no reply.

The National Union of Workers has more general concerns about the treatment of workers at Baiada, particularly contract workers.

"Baiada is a major poultry processor company - we think that in large part Baiada tend to engage in a way that moves risk from them to people, where risk should not reside in terms of the employer relationship, we think that needs to change," Mr Kennedy said.

Bullying allegations

A separate investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman into rates of pay and working conditions is still underway after snap inspections at Baiada plants around the nation.

Workers at Baiada's Adelaide plant had complained about being bullied into accepting below-award wages and long hours - often beyond working or student visa conditions.

The National Union of Workers is campaigning to improve safety and working conditions at Baiada's various plants.

Mr Kennedy says management told workers to renounce their union membership this week or they could face reduced hours.

"The workers are expressing great concern, some are in tears, that not only have they been asked to resign from the union, but also being threatened [that] if they don't resign from the union, maybe their hours will change," he said.

"These reports concern us."

But Baiada has rejected the union's allegations.

The company says it has not threatened to cut staff hours or asked workers to resign from the union.

Sarel Singh's family wants answers.

"Yes it should be investigated and if there is a culprit he should be punished as per laws of the Australian Government," Harry Singh said.

The family is also seeking compensation.

NASA's Extraterrestrial Life News Wasn't Necessarily About Aliens

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 06:52 AM PST

NASA - NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."

This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.

Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.

"We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new -- building parts of itself out of arsenic," said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. "If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"

The newly discovered microbe, strain GFAJ-1, is a member of a common group of bacteria, the Gammaproteobacteria. In the laboratory, the researchers successfully grew microbes from the lake on a diet that was very lean on phosphorus, but included generous helpings of arsenic. When researchers removed the phosphorus and replaced it with arsenic the microbes continued to grow. Subsequent analyses indicated that the arsenic was being used to produce the building blocks of new GFAJ-1 cells.

The key issue the researchers investigated was when the microbe was grown on arsenic did the arsenic actually became incorporated into the organisms' vital biochemical machinery, such as DNA, proteins and the cell membranes. A variety of sophisticated laboratory techniques was used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.

The team chose to explore Mono Lake because of its unusual chemistry, especially its high salinity, high alkalinity, and high levels of arsenic. This chemistry is in part a result of Mono Lake's isolation from its sources of fresh water for 50 years.

The results of this study will inform ongoing research in many areas, including the study of Earth's evolution, organic chemistry, biogeochemical cycles, disease mitigation and Earth system research. These findings also will open up new frontiers in microbiology and other areas of research.

"The idea of alternative biochemistries for life is common in science fiction," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Until now a life form using arsenic as a building block was only theoretical, but now we know such life exists in Mono Lake."

The research team included scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Penn., and the Stanford Synchroton Radiation Lightsource in Menlo Park, Calif.

NASA's Astrobiology Program in Washington contributed funding for the research through its Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. NASA's Astrobiology Program supports research into the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life on Earth.

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Mono Lake bacteria build their DNA using arsenic

discovermagazine - Arsenic isn't exactly something you want to eat. It has a deserved reputation as a powerful poison. It has been used as a murder weapon and it contaminates the drinking water of millions of people. It's about as antagonistic to life as a chemical can get. But in California's Mono Lake, Felisa Wolfe-Simon has discovered bacteria that not only shrug off arsenic's toxic effects, but positively thrive on it. They can even incorporate the poisonous element into their proteins and DNA, using it in place of phosphorus.

Out of the hundred-plus elements in existence, life is mostly made up of just six: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus. This elite clique is meant to be irreplaceable. But the Mono Lake bacteria may have broken their dependence on one of the group – phosphorus – by swapping it for arsenic. If that's right, they would be the only known living things to do this.

The discovery is amazing, but it's easy to go overboard with it. For example, this breathlessly hyperbolic piece, published last year, suggests that finding such bacteria would be "one of the most significant scientific discoveries of all time". It would imply that "Mono Lake was home to a form of life biologically distinct from all other known life on Earth" and "strongly suggest that life got started on our planet not once, but at least twice".

The results do nothing of the sort. For a start, the bacteria – a strain known as GFAJ-1 – don't depend on arsenic. They still contain detectable levels of phosphorus in their molecules and they actually grow better on phosphorus if given the chance. It's just that they might be able to do without this typically essential element – an extreme and impressive ability in itself.

Nor do the bacteria belong to a second branch of life on Earth – the so-called "shadow biosphere" that Wolfe-Simon talked about a year ago. When she studied the genes of these arsenic-lovers, she found that they belong to a group called the Oceanospirillales. They are no stranger to difficult diets. Bacteria from the same order are munching away at the oil that was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. The arsenic-based bacteria aren't a parallel branch of life; they're very much part of the same tree that the rest of us belong to.

That doesn't, however, make them any less extraordinary.

Phosphorus helps to form the backbone of DNA and it's a crucial part of ATP, the molecule that acts as a cell's energy currency. Arsenic sits just below phosphorus in the periodic table. The two elements have such similar properties that arsenic can usurp the place of phosphorus in many chemical reactions. But arsenic is a poor understudy – when it stands in for phosphorus, it produces similar but less stable products. This partially explains why the element is so toxic. But the bacteria of Mono Lake have clearly found a way to cope with this.

They have every reason to do so. Mono Lake sits in a sealed basin close to California's Yosemite National Park. With no outlet connecting it to other bodies of water, any chemicals flowing into the lake tend to stay there. As a result, the lake has built up some of the highest concentrations of arsenic on the planet. To survive here, bacteria have to be able to cope with the poison.

In 2008, Ronald Oremland (who was also involved in the latest study) discovered bacteria in Mono Lake that can fuel themselves on arsenic. Like plants, they can photosynthesise, creating their own food using the power of the sun. But where plants use water in this reaction, the bacteria used arsenic. Wolfe-Simon has taken these discoveries a step further, by showing that the bacteria are actually incorporating arsenic into their most important of molecules.

She took sediment from Mono Lake and added it to Petri dishes containing a soup of vitamins and other nutrients, but not a trace of phosphorus. She took samples from these dishes and added them to fresh ones, gradually diluting them to remove any phosphorus that might have stowed away onboard. And all the while, she added more and more arsenic.

Amazingly, bacteria still grew in the dishes. Wolfe-Simon isolated one of these arsenic-lovers – a strain called GFAJ-1. Using an extremely sensitive technique called ICP-MS that measures the concentrations of different elements, she showed that the cells of these bacteria did indeed contain large amounts of arsenic.

By giving the bacteria a mildly radioactive form of arsenic, Wolfe-Simon could also track where the element ended up in the cells. The answer: everywhere. There was arsenic in the bacteria's proteins and in their fat molecules. It had replaced phosphorus in many important molecules including ATP and glucose (a sugar). It was even in their DNA, a conclusion that Wolfe-Simon backed up with a number of other techniques. All other life uses phosphorus to create the backbone of the famous double helix, but GFAJ-1's DNA had a spine of arsenic.

It's an amazing result, but even here, there is room for doubt. As mentioned, Wolfe-Simon still found a smidgen of phosphorus in the bacteria by the end of the experiment. The levels were so low that the bacteria shouldn't have been able to grow but it's still not clear how important this phosphorus fraction is. Would the bacteria have genuinely been able to survive if there was no phosphorus at all?

Nor is it clear if the arsenic-based molecules are part of the bacteria's natural portfolio. Bear in mind that Wolfe-Simon cultured these extreme microbes using ever-increasing levels of arsenic. In doing so, she might have artificially selected for bacteria that can use arsenic in place of phosphorus, causing the denizens of Mono Lake to evolve new abilities (or overplay existing ones) under the extreme conditions of the experiment.

Other species can cope with arsenic too. Some switch on genes that give them resistance to arsenic poisoning, while others can even "breathe" using arsenate. But GFAJ-1 uses the element to an even greater extent. How does it manage?

Under the microscope, the bacteria become around 50% larger if they grow on arsenic compared to phosphorus, and they develop large internal compartments called vacuoles. These might be the key to their success. Wolfe-Simon thinks that the vacuoles could act as a safe haven for unstable arsenic-based molecules – they might contain chemicals that steady the molecules, and they might keep out water that would hasten their breakdown.

These are questions for future research. In the mean time, the angle being used to sell the story is that this might have implications for alien life. Of course, the results have nothing to do with aliens. If anything, they expand the possibilities of what alien life might look like. If bacteria on Earth can exist using a biochemistry that's very different to that of other microbes, it stands to reason that aliens could do the same.

That hasn't stopped the hype machine from rolling forward, fuelled by a public announcement from NASA, teasing a press conference about an "astrobiology discovery". It's a shame. In teasing their own press conference two days ahead of time, and refusing to budge on the embargo when the first information trickled in, NASA effectively muzzled everyone who knew about the actual story while allowing speculation to build to fever pitch.

That may, of course, be their intention. However, I can't help but feel that the result will be a lot of disappointed people, who've been robbed of an opportunity to be excited about a genuinely interesting discovery.

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Arsenic-loving bacteria may help in hunt for alien life

BBC - The first organism able to substitute one of the six chemical elements crucial to life has been found.

The bacterium, found in a California lake, uses the usually poisonous element arsenic in place of phosphorus.

The find, described in Science, gives weight to the long-standing idea that life on other planets may have a radically different chemical makeup.

It also has implications for the way life arose on Earth - and how many times it may have done so.

The "extremophile" bacteria were found in a briny lake in eastern California in the US.

While bacteria have been found in inhospitable environments and can consume what other life finds poisonous, this bacterial strain has actually taken arsenic on board in its cellular machinery.

Until now, the idea has been that life on Earth must be composed of at least the six elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus - no example had ever been found that violates this golden rule of biochemistry.

The bacteria were found as part of a hunt for life forms radically different from those we know.

"At the moment we have no idea if life is just a freak, bizarre accident which is confined to Earth or whether it is a natural part of a fundamentally biofriendly universe in which life pops up wherever there are Earth-like conditions," explained Paul Davies, the Arizona State University and Nasa Astrobiology Institute researcher who co-authored the research.

"Although it is fashionable to support the latter view, we have zero evidence in favour of it," he told BBC News.

"If that is the case then life should've started many times on Earth - so perhaps there's a 'shadow biosphere' all around us and we've overlooked it because it doesn't look terribly remarkable."

Proof of that idea could come in the form of organisms on Earth that break the "golden rules" of biochemistry - in effect, finding life that evolved separately from our own lineage.

Study lead author Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues Professor Davies and Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University initially suggested in a paper an alternative scheme to life as we know it.

Their idea was that there might be life in which the normally poisonous element arsenic (in particular as chemical groups known as arsenates) could work in place of phosphorus and phosphates.

Putting it to the test, the three authors teamed up with a number of collaborators and began to study the bacteria that live in Mono Lake in California, home to arsenic-rich waters.

The researchers began to grow the bacteria in a laboratory on a diet of increasing levels of arsenic, finding to their surprise that the microbes eventually fully took up the element, even incorporating it into the phosphate groups that cling to the bacteria's DNA.

Notably, the research found that the bacteria thrived best in a phosphorus environment.

That probably means that the bacteria, while a striking first for science, are not a sign of a "second genesis" of life on Earth, adapted specifically to work best with arsenic in place of phosphorus.

However, Professor Davies said, the fact that an organism that breaks such a perceived cardinal rule of life makes it is a promising step forward.

"This is just a weird branch on the known tree of life," said Professor Davies. "We're interested ultimately in finding a different tree of life... that will be the thing that will have massive implications in the search for life in the Universe.

"The take-home message is: who knows what else is there? We've only scratched the surface of the microbial realm."

John Elliott, a Leeds Metropolitan University researcher who is a veteran of the UK's search for extraterestrial life, called the find a "major discovery".

"It starts to show life can survive outside the traditional truths and universals that we thought you have to use... this is knocking one brick out of that wall," he said.

"The general consensus is that this really could still be an evolutionary adapatation rather than a second genesis. But it's early days, within about the first year of this project; it's certainly one to think on and keep looking for that second genesis, because you've almost immediately found an example of something that's new."

Simon Conway Morris of the University of Cambridge agreed that, whatever its implications for extraterrestrial life, the find was significant for what we understand about life on Earth.

"The bacteria is effectively painted by the investigators into an 'arsenic corner', so what it certainly shows is the astonishing and perhaps under-appreciated versatility of life," he told BBC News.

"It opens some really exciting prospects as to both un-appreciated metabolic versatility... and prompting the questions as to the possible element inventory of remote Earth-like planets".

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