The Na'vi DNA contreversy

[ToktorGrace]

(Now I'm wondering if it'd be possible to listen in on the transmissions...)

Lol.. that could be extremely awkward...

Though it would explain why Quaritch knew Jake got local tail >.>

[Na'vin Nos'feratxu]

I look forward to the sequel....even though its 4 years away......yikes!
I wonder if it will also be around 3hours long?

[Brainiac]

I look forward to the sequel....even though its 4 years away......yikes!
I wonder if it will also be around 3hours long?

If it's up to Cameron, I think it would be around 3 years long.

[Na'vin Nos'feratxu]

I look forward to the sequel....even though its 4 years away......yikes!
I wonder if it will also be around 3hours long?

If it's up to Cameron, I think it would be around 3 years long.

I....would watch it.... 

[Human No More]

Left to their own devices, the Avatar bodies are capable of nothing other than autonomous functions. It seems likely to me that all of the 'processing' occurs in the driver's own brain, and the Avatar bodies merely provide a sort of 'data feed' from some kind of transmitter/receiver implant on the top of the brainstem. Kind of like cloud computing- you have a low powered machine, so you get your realtime rendering done elsewhere and streamed back to you.

Mllte. The activity is still present in the human's brain, along with even some reactions (Jake's eyes moving when linked), the signals are just intercepted and directed to the avatar instead of the human's body.
I read one funny fanfic which had a lot of short scenes, one was where Jake was getting out of the link after mating with Neytiri and Norm and Grace noticed hrh

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

I read one funny fanfic which had a lot of short scenes, one was where Jake was getting out of the link after mating with Neytiri and Norm and Grace noticed

hrh. Which fanfic was this? I don't usually read fanfic.

[Txur’Itan]

In the way Phosphorous can be replaced by arsenic, I have thought that Cytosine Guanine Adenine Thymine DNA & RNA like structures could be made of other atoms, and create molecules besides what we see in human construction of CGAT.

http://gizmodo.com/5704158/

What I wonder, is whether calling it DNA would still be correct if this type of molecule existed, and would only serve to confuse people trying to understand the differences.  Or would DNA become a general term, and a specific sub-classification of DNA compositions would be developed as new molecules are discovered.

[ToktorGrace]

In the way Phosphorous can be replaced by arsenic, I have thought that Cytosine Guanine Adenine Thymine DNA & RNA like structures could be made of other atoms, and create molecules besides what we see in human construction of CGAT.

http://gizmodo.com/5704158/

What I wonder, is whether calling it DNA would still be correct if this type of molecule existed, and would only serve to confuse people trying to understand the differences.  Or would DNA become a general term, and a specific sub-classification of DNA compositions would be developed as new molecules are discovered.

Oh cool! I know there are some speculations, but is awesome to see an article on it!

[Nyx]

That's what I was guessing, that they'd just be using other things to build their DNA, and that because of that it might have a different name. But the term DNA only covers that it's an acid with nucleotides stuck to deoxyribose, nothing about that specifies phosphorous, only the sugar is really named there. Compare it to RNA, which uses ribose instead, the fact that RNA uses U instead of T as one of the bases isn't in the name of it. So, I think scientists might use the same terms as long as it isn't extremely different. And then, whatever these new bacteria have can still be called DNA.

Thanks for that article, btw ^^

[Txur’Itan]

That's what I was guessing, that they'd just be using other things to build their DNA, and that because of that it might have a different name. But the term DNA only covers that it's an acid with nucleotides stuck to deoxyribose, nothing about that specifies phosphorous, only the sugar is really named there. Compare it to RNA, which uses ribose instead, the fact that RNA uses U instead of T as one of the bases isn't in the name of it. So, I think scientists might use the same terms as long as it isn't extremely different. And then, whatever these new bacteria have can still be called DNA.

Thanks for that article, btw ^^

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html

Here is the originally posted main article from the NASA website.

----

I wonder what would be the viability of DNA a molecule that exchanged Oxygen for Sulfur or Polonium.  Or Exchanged Carbon for Silicon, Germanium, or Tin...

I wonder how far across the atomic spectrum we can leap and still have the formations of life occur.

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

What about life that uses something other than water as a solvent?

[ToktorGrace]

What about life that uses something other than water as a solvent?

Methane/methanol on Titan!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7805069/Titan-Nasa-scientists-discover-evidence-that-alien-life-exists-on-Saturns-moon.html

[Txur’Itan]

What about life that uses something other than water as a solvent?

Methane/methanol on Titan!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7805069/Titan-Nasa-scientists-discover-evidence-that-alien-life-exists-on-Saturns-moon.html

Methane/Methanol would likely be evidence of a form of bacteria, if it is there, it's DNA may provide additional clues as to how life can form.  And could lead us down the path of theoretical human alien hybridization cloning techniques.

[Human No More]

What about life that uses something other than water as a solvent?

Methane/methanol on Titan!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7805069/Titan-Nasa-scientists-discover-evidence-that-alien-life-exists-on-Saturns-moon.html

What about life that uses something other than water as a solvent?

Methane/methanol on Titan!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7805069/Titan-Nasa-scientists-discover-evidence-that-alien-life-exists-on-Saturns-moon.html

Methane/Methanol would likely be evidence of a form of bacteria, if it is there, it's DNA may provide additional clues as to how life can form.  And could lead us down the path of theoretical human alien hybridization cloning techniques.

Mllte
It's another excellent find, been a few interesting ones recently.

I read one funny fanfic which had a lot of short scenes, one was where Jake was getting out of the link after mating with Neytiri and Norm and Grace noticed

hrh. Which fanfic was this? I don't usually read fanfic.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5666303/4/Touring_Pandora

[Nyx]

I wonder what would be the viability of DNA a molecule that exchanged Oxygen for Sulfur or Polonium.  Or Exchanged Carbon for Silicon, Germanium, or Tin...

I wonder how far across the atomic spectrum we can leap and still have the formations of life occur.

I guess in theory it could work as long as the bonds are still covalent. The biggest problem I see would be that ionic bonds are much harder to break, so a lot more energy would be needed to replicate DNA and such. Many of the big molecules in life-forms we know of today rely on folding and spatial orientation for their function and I think that ionic bonds would make them much more rigid. It seems a bit impractical to go that far, but I think there can still be a lot of variation. But who knows? And It sure would be interesting to see metallic or crystalline life ^^

[Nì'awtua Eyktan]

Here's an interesting page from wikipedia about alternate (hypothetical) biochemistry. Though there seems to loads of problems with non-carbon based lifeforms, like silicon.
"Even though Earth and other terrestrial planets are exceptionally silicon-rich and carbon-poor (the relative abundance of silicon to carbon in the Earth's crust is roughly 925:1), terrestrial life is carbon-based. The fact that carbon, though rare, has proven to be much more successful as a life base than the much more abundant silicon, may be evidence that silicon is poorly suited for biochemistry on Earth-like planets."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry

[Tsäroltxe te Eyrutì Tantse'itan]

Woah, very awesome last two posts!  Biochemistry and astrobiology are so awesome.

What if you use nucleic acids and other macromolecules to create an organic computer?

[Tsamsiyu92]

Haven't there been a discovery of a bacteria on earth living in a lake of arsenic (sp?) which has a lot of differences from onther creatures on Earth.... If only I could find the news article...

[ToktorGrace]

Haven't there been a discovery of a bacteria on earth living in a lake of arsenic (sp?) which has a lot of differences from onther creatures on Earth.... If only I could find the news article...

I think it was posted on the page before this one in this topic... or on another of the science topics here somewhere... lol Though the bacteria in question were living in high arsenic surroundings, the arsenic didn't become incorporated into the DNA until scientists pushed it to do so.

[archaic]

Chemical reactions are affected by the conditions they happen in, that's why stp is important. Pandora has a lower gravity, much stronger magnetic field, and an atmosphere with different gasses. It seems implausible to that Pandoran life would have the same biochemistry, and many biochemical compounds may well be toxic to humans.
Hell a good deal of what's on earth is toxic to humans.

I've read somewhere that the RDA was exploring the possibility that chemically treated Pandoran biomass may be edible, and used to feed the inhabitants of Hell's Gate.