Study Of Arsenic-Eating Microbe Finds Doubters

[salvorhardin]

NPR's Morning Edition reports on challenges to Felisa Wolfe-Simon's much ballyhooed December 2010 paper in Science describing a species of bacteria discovered in Mono Lake, CA which is able to substitute arsenic for phosphorous in its DNA.

A group of scientists has formally challenged the conclusions of a highly publicized report describing a mysterious microbe that seemed to thrive on a diet of arsenic.

The report, published in December by the journal Science, suggested that a bacterium found in California's Mono Lake was able to substitute arsenic for phosphorous, one of several elements considered essential for life.

At the time, NASA researcher and lead author Felisa Wolfe-Simon said, "This is an organism that has solved the challenge of being alive in a unique way."

...

One of the critics is Patricia Foster, a professor of biology at Indiana University. She says the hype surrounding the paper got ahead of the science.

"I was skeptical right from the start because it just seems such an improbable thing," she says. "Plus I was put off by all the press that surrounded it."
Full transcript and audio: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136771401/study-of-arsenic-eating-microbe-finds-doubters

[ananda]

1. Well, what is actually needed is independent study..

.. and verification.