{"id":5374,"date":"2025-02-11T08:29:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T08:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/her-discovery-wasnt-alien-life-but-science-has-never-been-the-same\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T08:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T08:29:31","slug":"her-discovery-wasnt-alien-life-but-science-has-never-been-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/her-discovery-wasnt-alien-life-but-science-has-never-been-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Her Discovery Wasn\u2019t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With TV cameras pointed at her, Felisa Wolfe-Simon began speaking at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JVSJLUIQrA0\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Dec. 2, 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve discovered \u2014 I\u2019ve led a team that has discovered \u2014 something that I\u2019ve been thinking about for many years,\u201d Dr. Wolfe-Simon said. She was at that time a visiting researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, speaking to a sizable audience of journalists and bloggers, two of them wearing tinfoil hats, and hordes of streamers online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Days before, NASA had teased \u201can astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.\u201d Speculation that NASA had discovered some kind of alien life bred exponentially across nascent social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon had, unfortunately, not found aliens, nor had she ever said she did. But she had<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>found a terrestrial organism that was behaving unlike any life form known on Earth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The creature came from the mud of Mono Lake, a body of water near Yosemite National Park that is nearly three times as salty as the Pacific Ocean. The lake has the pH level of glass cleaner and, most importantly for her team\u2019s discovery, is full of toxic arsenic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All known living things use six major chemical elements to keep their bodies churning. One is phosphorus. But from Mono Lake, Dr. Wolfe-Simon\u2019s team said they had isolated an organism that could replace phosphorus with arsenic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019d like to introduce to you today the bacterium GFAJ-1,\u201d she proclaimed. A picture of magnified black and white cylinders appeared on the screen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019ve cracked open the door to what\u2019s possible for life elsewhere in the universe,\u201d Dr. Wolfe-Simon said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s profound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt sounds to me like you\u2019re going to need to go out and find a new textbook to teach all those students about what elements are used to build life,\u201d said another panelist, Mary Voytek, director of NASA\u2019s astrobiology program, a funder of the discovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t know about a whole new textbook,\u201d said James Elser, a professor at Arizona State University, also on the panel. \u201cBut certainly some paragraphs and sentences are going to have to be rewritten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon piped in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGive me some time, Jim,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m at the beginning of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon did not change fundamental biology, but her announcement pointed to a change in how science would be conducted. Researchers trekked down from the ivory tower to have disputes and discussions in the digital open on blogs and in social media. Information flowed under the hashtag #arseniclife, shaking up traditional methods of evaluating truth and rigor in research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The saga highlighted the internet\u2019s possibilities for open discourse and real-time peer review. But it also revealed the perils of the medium, as Dr. Wolfe-Simon faced sustained personal attacks. She hasn\u2019t really been part of scientific society since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During those ensuing years, critics have persistently called for her paper\u2019s retraction. And now, more than a decade later, that retraction is being pursued by the prominent journal that published her team\u2019s work. They continue to defend the work\u2019s integrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, Dr. Wolfe-Simon is resurfacing with new experiments that ask fundamental questions about how, exactly, life works \u2014 and if the answers are different from what\u2019s in today\u2019s textbooks.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon had been thinking for years about life that might substitute arsenic for phosphorus before she went out in search of it. In 2009, among limestone turrets and buzzing flies, she plunged clear plastic tubes into Mono\u2019s mud, gathering samples.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She eventually isolated GFAJ-1, which her 11 co-authors agreed could incorporate arsenic into the molecules that make up its biology \u2014 proteins, fats and nucleic acids, which include DNA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She and her team <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1197258\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">submitted their paper to Science<\/a>, the journal that has published such major discoveries as a sequence of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1058040\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">human genome<\/a> and evidence of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna43229747\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">ancient water<\/a> on Mars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Editors then sent the manuscript out for peer review, in which outside experts evaluate and poke holes in a paper. The analysis that came back was positive, enthusiastic, as the science journalist Dan Vergano reported in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/tech\/columnist\/vergano\/2013\/02\/01\/arseniclife-peer-reviews-nasa\/1883327\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">USA Today<\/a> after he received the records from NASA under a Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">NASA was also enthusiastic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBack then, we used to have something called a murder board,\u201d said Dr. Voytek, where people assessed the rigor of unpublished scientific results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the #arseniclife murder board, the team decided to move forward, even though they were aware of some fuzziness in the results. \u201cWe understood that this wasn\u2019t conclusive,\u201d Dr. Voytek said. \u201cWe understood it was suggestive.\u201d They thought the uncertainty might inspire future investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soon after came NASA\u2019s ET news release and the flashy news conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Holden Thorp, the current editor in chief of Science said the journal\u2019s editors weren\u2019t aware of NASA\u2019s framing. \u201cThe use of the word \u2018extraterrestrial\u2019 was not something we picked up until it had already gotten away from us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And get away it did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hype around the paper soon made Dr. Wolfe-Simon, as we say today, the internet\u2019s main character. After the announcement, she delivered a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.felisawolfesimon.com\/ted-talk-felisa-wolfe-simon\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">TED Talk<\/a>, sat for an interview with the magazine Glamour and was one of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/content.time.com\/time\/specials\/packages\/article\/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066250,00.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Time100<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For a couple of days after the news conference, the response was positive. But then blogs run by scientific researchers called attention to methodological concerns with the work and brought doubt to the conclusions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was too much <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/rrresearch.fieldofscience.com\/2011\/08\/first-evidence-refuting-wolfe-simon-et.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">contaminating phosphorus<\/a> in the samples, some said. Other critiques noted that when the team put the bacterium\u2019s DNA in water, the arsenic they said was present should, chemically, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC3801090\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">have fallen apart<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the past, such critiques would have appeared in journal papers published months later. Normally, says Gunver Lystbaek Vestergaard, a science journalist who studied the #arseniclife saga as a visiting scholar at Cornell University, the frank discussions leading to those articles would have happened behind closed doors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With #arseniclife, they propagated through blogs and Twitter, outpacing the usual speed of science. The public watched science play out as a process, complete with arguments and conflicting interpretations, rather than existing as a set of settled facts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Anyone could see scientists, from their personal accounts, questioning the quality of research published in one of the world\u2019s most esteemed journals. The events pulled power from the scientific clergy and put it in the hands of congregants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And they were being taken seriously. One <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/rrresearch.fieldofscience.com\/search\/label\/%23arseniclife\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">critic<\/a> who poked holes in the finding on her blog later published <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1201482\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a peer-reviewed response<\/a> in Science.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d said Dr. Vestergaard, who studied #arseniclife for her forthcoming book \u201cOur Living Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soon, prominent science journalists picked up on the controversy. News coverage shifted, highlighting the critiques of #arseniclife, and of Dr. Wolfe-Simon. Some science journalists did serious reporting on the controversy, but less rigorous write-ups followed. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of just copy-pasting and referencing each other\u2019s work without doing any independent research,\u201d Dr. Vestergaard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe whole media frame just changed over a day or two,\u201d Dr. Vestergaard added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This upending of scientific evaluation hasn\u2019t translated to large-scale changes in formal peer review, but it does endure online: For instance, in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists cached papers online and let the crowd do peer reviewing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That had cons \u2014 high-profile but incorrect results making headlines \u2014 and pros, like <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lanplh\/article\/PIIS2542-5196(21)00011-5\/fulltext\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">merging<\/a> general and scientific audiences. The public got \u201caccess to research material of immense topical interest,\u201d according to an<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>analysis in The Lancet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the traditional, private process had long made scientists feel safe, giving them an ability to shape narratives about emerging science. Once it was gone, so was the neat boundary. \u201cThe formal communication lines in science lost control,\u201d said Linda Billings, a communications consultant who worked with NASA on the 2010 announcement. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve properly regained that control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some experts say this was probably a good change: If public institutions \u2014 or scientists doing the work \u2014 could fully control a story, science could become propaganda. Journalists, other scientists and the public, they say, ought to be able to ingest and interpret results independently.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the #arseniclife team wasn\u2019t ready to embrace that openness at that time. Dr. Wolfe-Simon\u2019s adviser and co-author, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/asm.org\/obituaries\/in-memoriam-oremland,-ronald-s-ron\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ron Oremland<\/a> of the United States Geological Survey, told the group to respond to critiques in peer-reviewed journals, shutting down what many saw as productive, open debate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis was not an effective strategy in this case given the \u2018viral\u2019 nature of the response,\u201d said Thomas Kulp, another of the study\u2019s authors and an Earth science professor at Binghamton University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The quiet didn\u2019t sit well in the blogosphere, nor did Dr. Wolfe-Simon\u2019s brief moment of scientific celebrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-13\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Critique soon became attack, and attack often became personal \u2014 focusing, for instance, on Dr. Wolfe-Simon\u2019s appearance, including her dyed hair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was this wave that happened every week,\u201d she said of the negative publicity that resulted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was just awful,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIt was really, really awful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Thorp, who wasn\u2019t editor in chief of Science at the time, said not enough had been done to defend Dr. Wolfe-Simon against online vitriol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think there\u2019s probably more that Science could have done, by speaking out against that and by also moving more quickly and with greater transparency,\u201d he said. Bruce Alberts, who led Science<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>from 2008 to 2013, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although there were benefits to the open discussion, Ariel Anbar, a professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and an author on the paper, said the outcome of the #arseniclife debate had also revealed the Internet\u2019s drawbacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-14\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s a culture that moves fast but breaks people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon left Dr. Oremland\u2019s lab soon after the paper was published. She briefly found a new base at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was difficult that her co-workers knew her from the internet. And soon, Dr. Wolfe-Simon said, she couldn\u2019t get grants or publish papers; she couldn\u2019t adjust to the toxic waters. \u201cI became radioactive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And so, after her time as main character was over, Dr. Wolfe-Simon pivoted: Trained as an oboist, she started a music performance master\u2019s degree in 2013 while pregnant with the first of her two children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-15\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Music has been her steadying bass throughout her exile. She performs professionally and teaches part-time. Her basement, stuffed with sheet music, held a guest room for visiting musicians, a music studio and a station dedicated to handmaking oboe reeds, a woody collection tagged and organized just as lab equipment would be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-16\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She took jobs like organizing science seminars for Mills College in Oakland, helping biotech startups and working in bakeries. She referred to that as \u201cindustrial microbiology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen you do manual labor, people are less likely to look at you on the internet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Usually, professional consequences so severe are reserved for those who fabricate data or commit fraud, which no one has alleged with #arseniclife. Why, then, were the repercussions so resounding for Dr. Wolfe-Simon?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some said that being a woman in science, at an early stage of her career, had led to harsher treatment. As Dr. Wolfe-Simon describes it: \u201cI\u2019m little. I\u2019m enthusiastic. I present my science as if I were a man.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-17\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She also defended the discovery against scientific consensus. Some see that as an unwillingness to change a conclusion in the face of new information. Dr. Wolfe-Simon would say that information is wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Adherence to contested conclusions has not been a disqualifier for others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1996, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/people\/david-s-mckay\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">David McKay<\/a>, a NASA scientist, and colleagues published <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.273.5277.924\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a paper<\/a> positing that features on a meteorite from Mars could be evidence of alien life, including fossils of microbes. The result led to an announcement by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">President Bill Clinton at the White House<\/a>, followed by much controversy in the field of astrobiology. Dr. McKay\u2019s career thrived thereafter, and the scientific arguments spurred the field of astrobiology forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the #arseniclife debate happened when the internet was much faster and more public. And with Dr. Wolfe-Simon serving as the face of the discovery \u2014 something she wanted \u2014 the consequences when that went poorly were high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe internet never forgets,\u201d Mr. Vergano said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To this day, Dr. Wolfe-Simon defends the work, noting that she wishes the team had saved less data for a second paper. The team published <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1197258\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a response to critiques<\/a> in Science, and Dr. Wolfe-Simon disputes failed replications of their findings. Other co-authors say they also stand by the integrity of the original work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-18\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the editors of Science have signaled that they no longer support the research or its conclusions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe feel the best thing to do would be to retract the paper,\u201d Dr. Thorp said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-19\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The journal notified Dr. Wolfe-Simon and her co-authors about that feeling soon after a reporter with The New York Times requested an interview in late October. Discussions regarding a retraction are ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Thorp says Science can\u2019t justify the idea that #arseniclife is arsenic life, and he says that the original peer reviewers didn\u2019t have the right expertise in biochemistry to evaluate the paper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIn 2012, it was much more common that papers would only be retracted if there was misconduct or if the authors requested it,\u201d he said. A dozen years later, Dr. Thorp says norms have evolved, and journal editors can <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/publicationethics.org\/guidance\/guideline\/retraction-guidelines\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">retract papers<\/a> when they believe the findings are unreliable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-20\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Steve Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution thinks the process initially functioned as it should have.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cScience<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>published several papers arguing interpretations different from what Felisa made,\u201d he said. \u201cThe community now has the information needed to draw a conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The controversy is resurfacing as Dr. Wolfe-Simon is poking back into scientific civilization. She is interested in science that seeks patterns in nature. \u201c\u2018What is life?\u201d she said. \u201cWhat is it made of? How does it work?\u201d In 2024, she received funding through a NASA workshop for a project that questions assumptions about how living things produce energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon is pursuing her ideas in lab space at a research facility in Oakland. On an October morning, streaky purple hair standing out, Dr. Wolfe-Simon showed her sample tubes, scrounged from surplus supplies, in drawers labeled with pink tape on which her name is written. A heart hovered over the \u201cI\u201d in \u201cFelisa.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-21\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon is investigating magnetotactic bacteria \u2014 organisms that create magnetic crystals inside their bodies and respond to north-south pushes and pulls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAnd you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, that\u2019s an interesting party trick,\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201c\u2018Why?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-22\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The prevailing thinking is that magnetism helps the bugs navigate to areas with their preferred level of oxygen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon wonders if there is a different explanation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Perhaps, she said, they use a magnetic field to generate current, and use that current to generate energy. Right now, scientists know of two kinds of organisms: those that get energy from chemical reactions, and those that get it from light. If living beings could also keep themselves alive using magnetism, that would add new ideas about how life works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cCould this be something in plain sight?\u201d she wondered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Wolfe-Simon grabbed a magnet and a sample of mud she pulled out of the Berkeley Marina and prepared a slide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-23\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soon, through the eyepiece of a microscope, Dr. Wolfe-Simon could see tiny beings wiggling as they followed her magnet, as if on command. \u201cThey\u2019re so cute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She\u2019s excited to dip back in to science\u2019s muddy waters. \u201cI think that I have other contributions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And now, she said, she\u2019s coming at the experiments from a different place: In 2010, she was trying to solidify and advance her place in the scientific world. \u201cToday,\u201d she said, \u201cI have nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If she made an unconventional discovery about magnetic life, she wouldn\u2019t pursue a flashy journal that would impose a heavy hand in publication and press, she said. She would aim for more independence and try to provide agar for others\u2019 follow-up work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m focused solely on doing good science for its own sake,\u201d she said. \u201cThat freedom allows me to engage more directly with journalists and others without feeling constrained by the arbitrary rules and norms that failed me in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-24\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She has faith in science as an endeavor, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even when the structures upholding that endeavor \u2014 and the humans who built them \u2014 aren\u2019t as ideal as they are in the pages of textbooks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/11\/science\/arseniclife-felisa-wolfe-simon-retraction.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With TV cameras pointed at her, Felisa Wolfe-Simon began speaking at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2220,2221,2219,2218,1447,1023,1770,268,1872,1009,118,2217,125,188],"class_list":["post-5374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-arsenic","tag-bacteria","tag-extraterrestrial-life","tag-felisa","tag-microbiology","tag-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration","tag-news-and-news-media","tag-research","tag-science-journal","tag-science-and-technology","tag-social-media","tag-wolfe-simon","tag-x-formerly-twitter","tag-your-feed-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Her Discovery Wasn\u2019t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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