No doubt most have either heard of or read about the recent discovery of GFAJ-1 , a bacterium which can substitute arsenic for phosphorus in its biochemistry. Found in California's Mono Lake, the discovery marks the first time any life form has been seen using an element other than one of the "Big Six"—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur—as a key component in its biochemical make-up. While not as radical
as finding a creature swapping silicon for carbon or if it were arsenic-dependent as opposed to simply making do with a poison in its system, if the findings hold up , GFAJ-1's existence widens the possible forms life might take and the environments where they might develop.

Once thing struck me after the announcement. As interesting and important as it was, it wasn’t terribly exciting. Oh, it was intellectually stimulating, but at some level I felt as if an item had been checked off a list. Science reached a mark only to find science fiction had already been there and gone. I wondered: Does a steady diet of science fiction dull one's appreciation for real scientific discoveries? Any SF fan has been educated in the possibility of alternate biochemistries for decades. That silcon could be the foundational
element for a life form has been familiar to me since my first viewing of Star Trek’’s “The Devil in the Dark”. The show got most of the details wrong—the high temperatures beneath Janus VI’s surface would break down any silicon-based molecules analogous to the normal carbon-based DNA, RNA, etc.in life as we know it, but the root concept is correct. We’ve read about creatures made of gas, crystal, energy; ones feeding on emotion or radiation. Larry Niven featured a living blob of helium II in his short story “Wait it Out”. The thought
really crystallized when I read a number of posts on SF message boards people criticizing NASA for hyping the announcement. All that fuss for this?

Of course, NASA did no such thing. When the press conference to present a discovery with implications for the search for extraterrestrial life was announced, space bloggers rapidly spun the event into a revelation of life being discovered on Mars or Titan. That the discovery’s complete details were embargoed until the publication of the paper by Science magazine aggravated the situation and expectations spiraled out of control. Welcome to the Twitterverse, where a stampede down a blind alley is just one hundred forty characters away.

Proclamations about life Mars or Titan didn’t make sense. We don’t have the instruments in place to make such a discovery.  If we did, the source of the seasonal methane variations on Mars could have been sussed out by now. But what else could it be? We expect the announcement of a extraterrestrial life on Mars to come any time. If anything, it’s past due. So's a radio message picked up by SETI. But if a verifiable one is received will even this announcement comes across as small potatoes, met with an anticlimactic shrug and "What took you so long? Why aren't they here yet?" Every time science checks off an item the sci-fi list of "what outta be", the reaction in some circles is it should have been done years ago and the whole process is running well behind. Maybe I ran across some malcontents (On the internet? Say it ain't so!) and had a "familiarity breeds contempt" moment myself. Some disappointment after a highly anticipated event is a natural human reaction. People expect a lot out of the world, most of which ain't gonna happen. Certainly not now, not in their lifetime and maybe not ever. Those expectations are born from aspirations high and low. We want a better world or we're just bored and want to be entertained. Living through those expectations, absent any action to realize them, is a short trip to disappointment. Worse, the scope and reach of our imaginations is far greater than the possibilities of the real world, it is a shame when reality does equal them and goes unrecognized and unappreciated.