https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/24/science-retraction-arsenic-life-nasa-astrobiology/
Fifteen years after publishing an explosive but
long-criticized paper claiming to describe a
microbe that could substitute arsenic for
phosphate in its chemical makeup, Science is
retracting the article, citing “expanded”
criteria for retraction.
The authors stand by their findings and disagree
with the retraction, and contend the decision
doesn’t reflect best practices for publishers.
Many scientists, including David Sanders, a
biologist at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind.
who has previously argued for the paper’s
retraction in posts for Retraction Watch, believe
the paper’s results were simply the result of
contamination of the authors’ materials. He told
us he was “glad” to see the retraction.
“The problem was not that later research
undermined the conclusions,” Sanders said. “The
problem was that the evidence presented in the
article was not supportive of the conclusions
from the start and that all the results were
based on the fact that the arsenate was
contaminated with phosphate.”
While the retraction notice does not explicitly
state the contamination concern as a reason for
the retraction, a blog post by the journal’s
editors does.
...
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)