https://blog.speculist.com/fastforward_radio/fastforward-radio-living-beyond-200-alien-life-and-tricky-predictions.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 https://blog.speculist.com/fastforward_radio/fastforward-radio-living-beyond-200-alien-life-and-tricky-predictions.html#comment-5503 mattduing Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:03:06 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=2257#comment-5503 The research suggesting the presence of bacteria thriving on arsenic seems to have been very sloppy and its conclusion likely false. The replacement of phosphorus with arsenic in nucleotides would make them unstable in an aqueous environment. No mass spectrometry studies where done to confirm the incorporation of phosphorus into the bacteria’s biomolecules. A sample of bacteria taken from the lake grew in an arsenic-rich media but the media also contained a small amount of phosphorus and the metabolisms of bacteria are often highly efficient. The bacteria that grew appeared to be starved for nutrients on electron micrographs. Also, the lake the sample was taken from has high arsenic content but phosphorus is even more abundant.
Source: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-critics-nasa-arsenic-bacteria.html

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