Backlash/Feedback on NASA's Arsenic Findings

By Nancy Atkinson - December 6, 2010 at 9:39 AM UTC | Astrobiology
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I'm not a biologist – just a journalist who specializes in space and astronomy -- so I won't pretend to be knowledgeable about NASA's announcement last week of the

weird life in a California lake

that appears to be able to live with arsenic instead of phosphorous. But I did want to bring to our reader's attention some various points of view on the topic that have emerged since last Thursday's press conference.

Microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia

has written what could be called a "take-down" of the

science paper by Felisa Wolfe-Simon

and her team. It is a detailed and thorough review, and her bottom line is: "Lots of flim-flam, but very little reliable information."

Her opinion was quickly seconded by many other biologists/bloggers, as you can read in David Dodds post at Wired, and also

this post by Larry Moran,

a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.

SETI's Seth Shostak, however, has written

an article about it at Huffington Post,

and he says the news is "exceedingly cool."

Our pal Phil Plait was a guest on

CBCRadio and talked about the media hype/failure on this event.

Of course, there is always the

web comic XKCD's take on it, too.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com