Cool review!!

Now, the science…The microbe discovered is carbon-based. The NASA announcement referenced in the above Tron review made headlines. However, there is CONSIDERABLE skepticism among scientists as to the significance of this finding, and more importantly, the actual scientific methodology.

Again, the bacteria is carbon-based, as is all life on this planet. The six essential elements of life are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.

This bacteria was NOT found using arsenic (an element just below Phosphorus on the periodic table of the elements) as it’s main source of food in nature.

In the laboratory, the scientists fed the microbe arsenic. However, the very methodology of the experiments is in doubt, as are the findings themselves.

One of the immediate and accurate criticisms of this “finding” is the scientists who reported this discovery may not have maintained the microbes in an environment that was completely free of Phosphorus.

Steven Benner, an astrobiologist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla. He said the Science paper “also never rules out the obvious alternative explanation” — that these microbes were merely very good at tolerating arsenic, and were able to eke out an existence by scavenging tiny amounts of phosphorus.

This is NASA hype for the moment until the experiments can be reproduced.