Arsenic

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101202/full/news.2010.645.html

So ironically, I first saw these kinds of news in the japanese artist twitters I follow but since I run those tweets through a translator since I'm too stupid to understand japanese myself I at first thought NASA found life on other planets. Anyway I can see now I'm probably wrong. :V

The interesting thing is why people are so excited about this kind of news when... well I don't think its that exciting considering many kinds of scientific breakthroughs that change the way science is thought and taught happen every day. Frankly although it's nice to speculate a new type of DNA molecule, it doesn't seem all that surprising especially since Arsenic is right below Phosphorus in the first place... The researcher had the theory in her mind for a while now. I wouldn't say this is any more BREAKING NEWS as say the 1023rd chemotherapy treatment we have for cancer #34.

Well according to a japanese tweet I guess its the romanticism of "there is a new form of life" somewhere that appeals to some people. Apparently, to japanese anime artists on pixiv. :V

EDIT: The xkcd response, and I am amused, especially at the caption of the picture. http://www.xkcd.com/829/