Studia Metodologiczne, 2013, nr 30

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Czy życie może być oparte na arsenie? Błędy w badaniach nad bakteriami GFAJ-1
(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mmickiewicza w Poznaniu, 2013) Rzymski, Piotr; Poniedziałek, Barbara
Life constitutes of six essentials elements: carbon, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus. However, “shadow biosphere” theory assumes the existence of alternative life pathway that uses radically different biochemical and molecular processes than currently known life. Paper by Wolfe-Simon et al. (2011) published in high-profiled journal Science described bacterial species GFAJ-1 with ability not only to maintain life processes in high extracellular concentrations of arsenic but also to substitute phosphorus with arsenic in DNA. This report caused a number controversies related to applied methodology and interpretation of obtained results. Case of Wolfe-Simon et al. publication demonstrates the important role which is played by criticism against obtained results as well as concern for correction of applied methods.