New studies rebut report of arsenic-loving bacteria in Mono Lake
NEW YORK — It was a provocative finding: strange bacteria in California's Mono Lake thrived on something completely unexpected — arsenic. It suggested that life, a very different kind of life, might exist on some other planet.
The research, published by a leading scientific journal in 2010, led to overheated speculation and dissent about the original finding.
On Sunday, that same journal, Science, released two papers that rip apart the original research. They "clearly show" that the bacteria can't use arsenic as the researchers contended, said an accompanying statement from the journal.
The saga began when scientists led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon of NASA's Astrobiology Institute published a paper that said the bacteria could grow by substituting arsenic for phosphorus. The researchers had looked at Mono Lake because of its high arsenic levels, and reported their conclusions from lab experiments.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-weird-life-dispute-20120709,0,2666344.story