Replies

More .....The NASA news conference that presented the study included a skeptic, respected chemist Steven Benner, but that didn't stop bloggers from accusing NASA of both hyping the story and unquestioningly presenting flawed research. The first major blog attacking the work was posted by University of British Columbia zoology professor Rosie Redfield.

"Basically, it doesn't present ANY convincing evidence that arsenic has been incorporated into DNA (or any other biological molecule)," she wrote. She accused the Wolfe-Simon team of sloppy lab work and not testing whether their results were correct.

"Bottom line: I don't know whether the authors are just bad scientists or whether they're unscrupulously pushing NASA's 'There's life in outer space!' agenda," she wrote.

In an interview, she said Thursday that hers is an obscure blog and that she didn't expect the response she has gotten - with more than 100,000 visitors. She said that response was a sign of the "anger" in the community."....