‘Arsenic-life’ bacterium prefers phosphorous after all, Nature “Tawfik says that he was shocked by how good the proteins were at discriminating between the essential phosphate and the deadly arsenate. This does not mean that arsenate does not get into the bacteria, he points out. “It just shows that this bacterium has evolved to extract phosphate under almost all circumstances.” The exceedingly high preference for phosphorous found in the key proteins […]

Absence of Detectable Arsenate in DNA from Arsenate-Grown GFAJ-1 Cells, Science GFAJ-1 Is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism, Science Discovery of an arsenic-friendly microbe refuted, USA Today “The discovery of an arsenic-loving microbe that NASA said would rewrite biology textbooks and offered hope of life on other planets now looks like a case study in how science corrects its mistakes, researchers report. In findings released Sunday by the journal Science, two […]

Study challenges existence of arsenic-based life, Nature “A group of scientists, led by microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have posted data on Redfield’s blog that, she says, present a “clear refutation” of key findings from the paper. Redfield and her collaborators hope to submit their work to Science by the end of the month. She says that if Science refuses to publish the […]

Video: Ke$ha “We R Who We R” parody – “Astrobiology “Are we alone in the universe? Find out all about the search for extraterrestrial life in this educational parody of Ke$ha’s hit song, “We R Who We R.” Keith’s note: I suppose your reaction to this depends upon your taste in music, your age, etc. That said, I happen to think that this video is clever. It’s also rather contemporary […]

Exclusive Interview: Discoverer of Arsenic Bacteria, in the Eye of the Storm, Science Now “Q: So, NASA approached you about doing a press conference, and you thought that was a good idea? F.W.-S.: I wouldn’t say I thought it was a good or bad idea. I’d never been to a press conference, but it made good sense to me that my mom should know what I’d been up to, and […]

Study on arsenic-based life takes a beating on the Web, Washington Post “Linda Billings, a George Washington University research scientist and NASA consultant on media issues, said that based on the mountain of blogs and comments she has collected, one of the central concerns appears to be NASA’s use of the word “extraterrestrial” in its initial release. “The fact is that NASA is involved in the search for extraterrestrial life, […]

The Wrong Stuff: NASA Dismisses Arsenic Critique Because Critical Priest Not Standing on Altar, Wired “What he fails to see or refuses to acknowledge is that Rosie Redfield is a peer, and her blog is peer review. NASA has bungled its presentation of this paper from start to finish. It makes worse by trying to dismiss critiques this way. This is the wrong stuff.” NASA’s arsenic microbe science slammed, CBC […]

NASA-Funded Astrobiology Research Discovers Earth Life Built With Arsenic, NASA “NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth. Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.” Second Genesis on Earth?, […]

Keith’s note: Multiple, reliable sources within the Astrobiology community tell me that NASA’s Astrobiology announcement tomorrow concerns Arsenic-based biochemistry and the implications for the origin of life on Earth, how it may have happened more than once on our planet, and the implications for life arising elsewhere in the universe. NASA has not found life on any other world. That said, as a biologist, I have to say that this […]