NASA
Arsenic? Yes, Please!
04/12/10 15:26 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
NASA researchers reported that the bacterial strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae family of Gammaproteobacteria, when grown for months in a lab mixture containing arsenic, could swap its phosphorous content out for the more poisonous element, and have proposed that arsenate may replace phosphate in DNA in early life and potentially alien life forms. S. Pelech provides a lengthy critique of these findings that challenges these assumptions and provides alternative explanations for the study's results. Read More...
Hold the Arsenic
03/02/12 14:39 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Rosemary Redfield at the University of British Columbia posted a paper on ArXiv that refutes NASA astrobiologist Wolfe-Simon's conclusions that described a bacterium that seemed to grow on arsenic and incorporate it into its DNA. S. Pelech provided a summary of many problematic aspects of the Wolfe-Simon NASA study in a previous commentary in GenomeWeb's The Daily Scan (url: http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/arsenic-yes-please). Read More...