Comments on: New research points toward "no" on arsenic life

By: [LINK] “The Case (Study) of Arsenic Life: How the Internet Can Make Science Better” « A Bit More Detail

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:09:23 +0000

[...] Beats and Bad Astronomy are just two of the many blogs and other news sources that reported on the disproof of the claim of [...]

By: Weekly Roundup #4 | Skeptical Monsters

Weekly Roundup #4 | Skeptical Monsters — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:31:16 +0000

[...] Bad Astronomy – Earthlapse, New research points toward “no” on arsenic life and Titanic antarctic vortex [...]

By: The Scienceblogging Weekly (July 13th, 2012) | Stock Market News - Business & Tech News

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:37:17 +0000

[...] New research points toward no on arsenic life by Phil Plait [...]

By: James

James — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:52:10 +0000

You make me sad, Phil.

Just when I thought you were my hero, you’ve become a denialist?

:’(

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:01:17 +0000

S2 can exist in a transient form, generated in-situ and then trapped by another chemical intermediate. But you’re right in the sense that it can’t be “bottled” — it’s too unstable.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:45:33 +0000

I don’t know if it is childish of me to mention this, but here is arsenic’s best organoarsenic compound:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsole

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:42:03 +0000

Wzrd1 (15) said:

As As is to P what S is to O.
I can’t imagine WHO would want to attempt to breathe SO2…

Probably the same people who like to breathe O3.

S2 would be the period 3 equivalent of O2. And, IIUC, S2 does not exist.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:40:38 +0000

@ Torbjörn Larsson,

I don’t follow your reasoning about the motivation of Paul Davies. It would seem to me that a person trying to buttress the existence of Gods would want to prove that life on Earth is completely unique (possibly not existing anywhere else in the universe). The possibility that life only started successfully a single time on Earth would seem to support that case more than shadow biospheres that evolved independently. Multiple strains of life on Earth would seem to imply that it is easier for life to start elsewhere. Thus, Earth would no be so special after all. What am I missing?

By: Rorgg

Rorgg — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:50:47 +0000

>indicating the cells had not replaced As with P

The other way around, isn’t it?

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:53:01 +0000

“… the bacteria in Mono Lake actually do thrive in those arsenic-heavy waters!That itself is an important scientific result.”

Important, yes – but certainly not new. Reports of bacteria in water with very high As concentrations have been in the literature more than 20 years before the GFAJ-1 paper. If I recall correctly, the bacteria of Mono Lake were among the already known As tolerant species. The only new claim (which was wrong and immediately got the biologists enraged) was that the bacteria substituted As for P in its biochemistry.