NASA, Arsenic-based Life, Jumping the Gun, and Open Science

Study challenges existence of arsenic-based life, Nature

“A group of scientists, led by microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have posted data on Redfield’s blog that, she says, present a “clear refutation” of key findings from the paper. But after Redfield and others raised numerous concerns, many of which were published as technical comments in Science, Redfield put the results to the test, documenting her progress on her blog to advance the cause of open science … Redfield and her collaborators hope to submit their work to Science by the end of the month. She says that if Science refuses to publish the work because it has been discussed on blogs, it will become an important test case for open science.”

– Arsenic, Astrobiology, NASA, and the Media, earlier post
– NASA Researchers Start To Backtrack on Earlier Claims, earlier post
– Snarky NASA SMD Response to Snarky Public Astrobiology Discussion, earlier post
– Weird Arsenic-Eating Microbes Discovered? Yes. Finding E.T.? No, earlier post
– Arsenic-Based Life Found on Earth, earlier post
– NASA’s Astrobiology News: Arsenic Biochemistry Anyone? (Update), earlier post