Latest Felisa Wolfe-Simon Stories

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A 2010 controversial study that discovered a certain bacterium that used arsenic instead of phosphorus to build its DNA had been heavily scrutinized by the scientific community. Other researchers, awestruck by such a revelation, set out to replicate the study, yet were unable to glean the same results. Now, after intense studies over the past two years, researchers from Israel, France and Switzerland have found that the bacterium...

NASA-funded researchers announced earlier this month that they had found a new life form that thrives on arsenic, but critics are skeptical of the new outlook. "I don't know whether the authors are just bad scientists or whether they're unscrupulously pushing NASA's 'There's life in outer space!' agenda," wrote Canadian microbiologist Rosie Redfield in a blog that ignited the web furor.   Criticism spread, sparking a wide debate over what is in the alleged arsenic-eater's DNA....

Arizona State University scientists and their colleagues have found evidence that the toxic element arsenic can replace the essential nutrient phosphorus in biomolecules of a naturally occurring bacterium, which expands the scope of the search for life beyond Earth.  Scientists understand that all known life requires phosphorus, which is usually in the form of inorganic phosphate.  However, astrobiologists Ariel Anbar and Paul Davies of Arizona State University have stepped up...