Remember “Arsenic-Based Life”? Well, It’s More Like Arse-notsomuch …

They say that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Last year, Felisa Wolfe-Simon made an extraordinary claim, specifically that she had discovered a bacterium (GFAJ-1, above) that could use arsenic in place of phosphorous in its DNA. That we be what we in the scientific world call a “big fucking deal” (BFD). XKCD even got in on it.

But Rosie Redfield, a rainbow-haired microbiologist from British Columbia, didn’t buy it. She has been trying to replicate the original findings for months, keeping a public lab notebook on her blog.

Long story short: No arsenic in the DNA that she grew up. There’s some technical aspects discussed in this article, but here’s the kicker from Redfield:

“Their most striking claim was that arsenic had been incorporated into the backbone of DNA, and what we can say is that there is no arsenic in the DNA at all.”

They will be submitting their refutation to Science, and we’ll surely hear more after it goes through peer-review. One question remains for me, though. Will Science agree to publish work that’s been discussed on blogs? It’s been taboo before today, but this work couldn’t have been done without them.

I got caught up in the original hype (I was just glad people were paying attention), and I am glad that open discussion is allowing us to get to the bottom of this.

So much for arsenic aliens.

(via Scientific American, image via Wikimedia)

Source: scientificamerican.com