Arsenic-thriving Bacteria

rwsheets

7th December 2010 - 10:04 PM

So I'm interested to hear about others opinions on NASA's newest discovery, on the Mono Lake bacteria (newscientist.com) . I have read a few articles about people that think it's one of the greatest discoveries of all time, and much more of people that think it's a hoax or rather, an unsupported claim. There are still many test that should be done but they believe they already have enough information to state that they have discovered a bacteria that thrives off of arsenic instead of phosphorus. So what's up with that?

rpenner

7th December 2010 - 10:37 PM

NASA is full of it when it comes to microbiology.

This was evident early on:
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/arsei...d-bacteria.html
http://scienceblogs.com/webeasties/2010/12...e-based_dna.php
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocke...t-about-aliens/

And in detail:
http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/ars...eria-nasas.html
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/12...-based_life.php
http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologis...ur_gammapro.php
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/201...-about-arsenic/

And then NASA doesn't act like a grown up, trying to hide behind the journal publication process:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/...nding-on-altar/
http://www.slate.com/id/2276919/

Snarky:
http://xkcd.com/829/

flyingbuttressman

7th December 2010 - 10:41 PM

QUOTE (rwsheets+Dec 7 2010, 06:04 PM)

So what's up with that?

(edit)

Never mind.

El_Machinae

9th December 2010 - 07:24 PM

I think that Science should have asked for a bit better peer review, but I can see why they'd want to publish on this finding. If this is true, it would be an astounding discovery. And since it's been published on, other scientists are going to greatly enjoying using their labs to figure out if As has been incorporated into the DNA of these organisms.

Frankly, it's a fun idea.

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