Alien Earth pg.28

In the 70 square mile Mono lake just outside Yosemite National Park could pass for an extraterrestrial landscape!!!
It has:

• More than twice the amount of salt in the water compared to the ocean

• It's arsenic-laced waters support a vibrant ecosystem where it contains some of the most bizarre earthlings

• The bacteria there can not only consume the arsenic, but may even be able to incorporate the toxin into their DNA in place of phosphorus

• The craters neighboring the lake is the continents youngest Volcanoes, beginning 40,000 years ago

• The layer of ash buried in the underlying sediment confirms that Mono lake predates a volcanic blast 760,000 years ago!

• There are 30 feet up limestone spires dotting it's shores

Here is a picture of the Mono Lake:

this is cool how life can be so versatile and be able to survive such harsh conditions. this shows what l;ife may have been like inthe early years. i heard of a place like this in chile.

Really? in chile?
COOL!

What did the place look like?
DId it have weird conditions like this?

ya it had like acid coming out of the ground and it formd pools. other weird chemicals were found and organisms were found to be living in it. it was weird

acid??

cool!
DO you know how it got formed?

i cant remember. it was just this alien world that no one really knew existed.

That's amazing how acid cou;ld form like hot spings in the earth!!!

I really wonder how they are formed,.

Quote :

•The bacteria there can not only consume the arsenic, but may even be able to incorporate the toxin into their DNA in place of phosphorus

It's amazomg how much more there is to discover. This can eventually link into biological studies involving genetic engineering, research into DNA and genetic layouts are expanding at a rapid rate, and by doing tests in places such as this and doing continued research into bacteria as the one described above many new discoveries can be made. Often times medicine or medical technology is a copy of nature, and you never know what this bacterial research could lead to : maybe even a discovery that could help humans. I was also thinking, that there have been many new discoveries of bacteria who can convert harnful substances into substances that humans cab deal with.. maybe this will eventually be incorporated into pollution reduction technology, etc.

It would be neat to see a place like this, considering its extraterrestial status which creates a sort of provacative feeling. Seeing the variety of bizzare species and how they live in this anomalous environment would be cool. I agree with Wanas in saying this could provide new and useful research oppertunities - especially considering the foreign species which are not known to man. Perhaps research towards these species could provide man with valuable knowledge which we can use towards our own benefit or the benefit of the earth

ya i agree with taylor. you never know maybe some of these creatures hold the keys to curing diseases and cancer and other things of that sort. they could contain antidotes that could help the world

That would be convienent. Only time will tell until our researchers conjure up information from research and perhaps find something useful from these unique creatures. Also this type of area, in doing extensive research on it, could provide insight with regards to the history of earth that we do not currently know about. Perhaps it could provide a new idea which we can build off of

I'm sure there are many other places on earth that are rather different from what we usually see, so it really amazes people when a new place is discovered that is not what we consider as normal, therefore, we may come to a conclusion that it is not believable ..and in this article this different place is called "alien earth". I find earth as a very interesting place, I mean there are places where it is extremely hot, then places that are very cold. In my opinion I think that earth has been created in a very special way, like the mono lake, species that live around or in the lake have no problem living with such a harsh environment.
Knowing that this place once had volcanos around it, it really interests me, I wonder how did this place rebuild itself. But because this place had some volcano blast and stuff, it isn't a suprise to know that this place is different, like the salt level and stuff, since it did go through alot. Now many years after, this place is still in good shape, I believe scientests could find out why or just how this area is formed the way it is.

I agree that creatures who live around this area may be a cure for some disease, and I think the only way to know if that's true or not is if scientests actually investigated the place, maybe take a closer look at specific creatures and see if they are the answer to peoples problems.

I agree with Amy when she says that there are many different places on earth that we aren't use to seeing. It's 'alien' to us because we don't understand alot about it, but I'm sure that once research begins to take place and scientists know what to look for they will be able to identify other places just like the one mentioned in the article. When explorers came to north america they didn't know what they had found and it probably seemed alien to them. Many of them probably doubted the use of the land because of the cold conditions, but once they adapted and found reserves it was no longer alien. I think that because we have alreday discovered so much I have the opinion that everything has alreday been discovered, so whenever something new is found, its so surprising, but really there is still alot to find, and alot of discoveries left to be unsolved.

i agree. as close as the world is there a still, in my opinion, lots of places that are yet to be explored and examined. we may know they are there but we havent taken a good look yet. like some of the trenches in the ocean. we have not been all the way down and have not studied it closely.

who knew that a place so unique could exist, and honestly this is the first time any of us has heard of it, eh. I think people really need to open their minds to nature and its incredible features. Myself included, I don't want to sound preachy, but kids have to get away from the tv and live in the world around them.

There is forsure lots of areas on earth that have yet to be explored. Like tyler said, in trenches and other places within the vast oceans, there are places where humans have yet to see and explore. Surely more places like this alien earth are in one of these locations. And within these areas are likely species that have never been seen before, and would provide large scientific help in research.

Wow, I find things like this so interesting. Its crazy to think that any type of organism could exist and thrive in conditions like this. There are definitely countless discoveries to be made by scientists after examining such species. Organisms on this Earth are capable of much greater things than I think people expect!

thats pretty sweet i woounder what else is out there maybe theres a bug or organism that feeds off deformed cells
like cancer!!!??