NASA’s Arsenic-Loving Bacteria Don’t Love Arsenic After All, Critics Say
At first, the controversy over NASA’s arsenic-loving bugs centered on whether the space agency had found aliens. A week later, the debate has ping-ponged the other way, with scientists questioning whether the bacteria even love arsenic at all.
Over the weekend, a handful of respected microbiologists cried foul over NASA’s newly published study about a bacterium that apparently swapped arsenic for phosphorus in its molecular building blocks. If the scientists are right, the finding changes how we think about life, and suggests it might exist in weird forms elsewhere in the universe. The problem is, they’re wrong, according to several critics.
This makes me sad… And a little frustrated.
(via ephemeralityy)








