US Edition
A science journal pulled a controversial study about a bizarre life form against the authors’ wishes
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, JUL 24 – Science magazine retracted a 2010 article after independent teams failed to replicate findings that a bacterium incorporated arsenic into its DNA, challenging the original claims.
- NASA presented a study claiming to find an arsenic-based life form in Mono Lake, California, which became a significant scientific controversy.
- The journal Science retracted the study due to failures in replicating the results, and there is no evidence supporting the claims.
- Eleven of the twelve authors disputed the retraction, asserting their research was valid and without misconduct.
- NASA's science mission chief stated that NASA does not support the retraction and encourages the journal to reconsider.
28 Articles
28 Articles
Journal Retracts Controversial Study After 15 Years
Fifteen years after the journal Science published a bombshell study with the potential to rewrite the rules of how life can form, the journal is retracting the paper, reports Nature . The authors of the paper adamantly disagree with the decision. In what came to be known as the "arsenic life"...
‘Science’ retracts controversial study on mysterious microbe, 15 years later
For a few days in December 2010, the world fantasized about the discovery of extraterrestrial life. NASA had sent out a press release to present “an astrobiological discovery” that would impact the search for life beyond Earth. The result was one of the biggest scientific controversies in recent history, and this Thursday a new chapter was written with the unilateral decision by the prestigious research journal Science to withdraw the study. In …
In a resounding article published by the prestigious scientific journal in 2010, a team supported by NASA claimed to have discovered on Earth a bacterium with a life form never seen. The beginning of a controversy that has just found its epilogue.
Science Integrity Digest Summer 2025
It is hard to find the time to post here. I’m getting lots of requests to help scanning papers for image problems, and am also traveling a lot to give talks and be in panels. So my ‘monthly’ digests have now turned into quarterly digests, hahaha. These past months, I have traveled to Berlin to receive the Einstein Foundation Award, to Oxford for the FAIRS Meeting, participated in a workshop in Stockholm organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of …
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