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from the editor
Even with poisonous hype,
some science can survive
Scientists have to walk a thin line when
communicating with the public. To con-
vey their work’s value and importance,
they must present it in an engaging man-
ner that emphasizes its most interesting
aspects. In so doing, pertinent qualifica-
tions and caveats may be glossed over,
leading the communicators’ peers to
allege excessive hype or even to demonize the research itself.
As intermediaries conveying discoveries to the public, science journalists can get caught in this cross fire. In December,
the bullets were flying furiously over a report about a microbe
converted into an arsenic-loving, alien-like species proving
that life on other worlds can be very different from Earth’s.
Oh wait. That was the hype. NASA’s clever PR machine
leaked just enough information about the announcement for
this new study to compete for media attention with celebrity
divorces and athlete arrests. Bookies were even taking bets
about the possibility that E. T. had finally phoned Earth. When
the paper describing the finding was finally released by the
journal Science, it turned out to be a simple case of an earthly
species learning to substitute arsenic for phosphorus in its
diet, as Rachel Ehrenberg describes in this issue (Page 5).
Of course, that really is a big deal. Life’s six essential
elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and
phosphorus) aren’t supposed to be negotiable. And arsenic is
poisonous. So showing that a microbe could grow by eating it,
apparently even incorporating it into its DNA, ranks as one of
the top stories of the 21st century, so far. If it’s right.
Many scientists doubt that this finding is correct, though.
Maybe the researchers made mistakes, or perhaps there are
other explanations for the results of their experiments. But
you could say the same about almost any surprising scientific
study that gets published. And the researchers did perform an
array of experiments, investigating these microbes using various technologies producing quantitative data pointing in the
arsenic-eating direction.
It’s surely true that more work needs to be done to verify
this finding. That’s the way it is in science. But the ultimate
outcome will not depend on how much hype surrounded the
initial report. Biochemistry does not care whether NASA
hypes new reports or not — had this paper been released without even a whisper, it would still have contained precisely
the same evidence, with the merits of the analyses neither
enhanced nor diminished. — Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief
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