New Science Papers Prove NASA Failed Big Time In Promoting Supposedly Earth ... - Forbes

Today, Science Magazine, one of the top scientific journals and the original publisher of the GFAJ-1 work,is publishing two new papers that completely demolish the argument that GFAJ-1 is a completely new form of life. Early on, the magazine’s editors make the point quietly: “Contrary to an original report, the new research clearly shows that the bacterium, GFAJ-1, cannot substitute arsenic for phosphorus to survive.”  Later,they repeat it for emphasis, in stronger terms: “In conclusion,” they write,  “the new research shows that GFAJ-1 does not break the long-held rules of life, contrary to how Wolfe-Simon had interpreted her group’s data.”Flash back to December 2010. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) called a press conference. Rumors circulated that the agency was about to announce that life had been discovered somewhere other than planet Earth. The real news wasn’t that big, but it was close. A 33-year-old biologist, Feli!
sa Wolfe-Simon, had discovered a bacteria that seemed to break a cardinal rule of biology. All life forms on earth use six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. But in Mono Lake in California, Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues had found a type of bacteria, GFAJ-1, that seemed to have replaced phosphorus with arsenic.<br />http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/07/08/new-science-papers-prove-nasa-failed-big-time-in-promoting-supposedly-earth-shaking-discovery-that-wasnt/