Live-blogging Arsenic Life

I'm spending the weekend in Ottawa, where a couple thousand scientists have gathered for the Joint Congress of Evolutionary Biology. I'm drowning in a torrent of fascinating talks, on everything from sexually cannibalistic crickets to the future of the Amazon's biodiversity. In the evenings, the meeting features high-profile talks--Friday night, the science writer David Quammen spoke about his career, on the occasion of winning the Stephen Jay Gould Prize. I have a particular interest in tonight's talk, so much so that I'm going to live-blog it. The speaker is one Rosie Redfield, and she'll be talking about the endlessly intriguing case of Arsenic Life. Before Redfield takes to the stage at 7:30 pm ET, I want to write a short preface. In December 2010, rumors swirled for a few days that NASA had discovered alien life. When they finally held a press conference, the world discovered that a team of ...