Let The Creatard Shitting of Bricks Begineth

[Exian]

I'd really hate to overwhelm the creatards in this stage of crisis and denial, but while you're worrying about the origins of life not being special to Earth, here's some possible life that may very well be special to Earth: Synthetic.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26...H5bnGS9Kc0

Enzymes that don't exist in nature have been made from genetic material that doesn't exist in nature either, called XNA, or xeno nucleic acid.

ETA: Just to be clear, the XNA and its synthetic brothers are the old news, the breakthrough is the synthetic enzyme.

ETA(again): Aside from the implications of life's origin here on Earth, this is the most exciting bit to me:

Holliger says that XNAs may also have roles to play in medicine. Because they do not occur naturally, they can't be broken down in the human body. And since they can be designed to break and destroy RNA, they could work as drugs for treating RNA viruses or disabling RNA messages that trigger cancers.

"We've made XNA enzymes that cut RNA at specific sites, so you could make therapies for cleaving viral or oncogenic messenger RNA," says Holliger. "And because they can't be degraded, they could give long-lasting protection."