(December 2, 2010 at 9:23 pm)theVOID Wrote: Anyway, what this most remarkably demonstrates is that the usual mix of N, O, H, C, P and S required for life is not a boundary but a commonality.
What would be extremely interesting is if Selenium can be used in place of Sulfur or Silicon in place of Carbon, this would be more amazing as it would make the proportions and relationships between bonds more important than the elements themselves.
Knowing Craig Venter and his quest to make organic life in a lab from scratch, I have no doubt that if man were to understand a cell completely, one might make that sort of "life" from the ground up. Though I can't see how such a thing would work.
