Scientist Smackdown: Experts Challenge Story of Arsenic-Loving Bacteria

First came the extraterrestrial speculation. Then came the actual answer. Then came the backlash. NASA's big astrobiology news last week had nothing to do with E.T., of course—the team behind a study in Science announced the find of a kind of bacteria that appear to thrive in arsenic and can even use it in place of phosphorus in the backbone of its DNA double helix. But after the big announcement finally happened and squelched the more imaginative rumors, scientists started asking some hard questions about the study online. Over at Slate, DISCOVER blogger Carl Zimmer rounded up expert critiques from biologists, and many didn't hold back.