by New York (AP) – A microscopic discovery in a California lake solved more than a decade after the first.
Scientists said they had discovered bacteria that used the element arsenic – as we know it – to grow. If it is true, it expanded the possibilities where life on earth could exist – or on other worlds.
Several research groups could not replicate the results and argue that it is not possible for something to use something so toxic to produce DNA and proteins. Some scientists have proposed that the results of the original experiments may have been distorted by undiscovered contaminants.
On Thursday, the magazine Science, which first published research, pulled it back, but not because of the researcher’s misconduct.
“If the editors find that the reported experiments of a paper do not support their most important conclusions, even if no fraud or manipulation has occurred, a withdrawal is being considered,” wrote the journal editor -in -chief, Holden Thorp, in the explanation that announced the withdrawal.
The researchers do not agree to the journal’s decision and have their data. It is reasonable to draw a paper for big mistakes or presumed misconduct-but debates and disagreements about the results are part of the scientific process, said the co-author of the study, Ariel Anbar from Arizona State University.
“You do not withdraw paper because the interpretation is controversial or even because most of the interpretation did not agree,” wrote Anbar in an e -mail. “At least that was not the case so far.”
In recent years, science has withdrawn papers more frequently for reasons, wrote in a blog post, wrote in a blog post.
NASA helped finance the original work. Nicky Fox, head of the space agency, said in a statement that NASA does not support the withdrawal and encourages science to rethink.
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