image: This is Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon in the field collecting samples at Mono Lake, Calif. Here she has just pulled up a push core of sediments (mud) from the bottom of the lake. This core will provide starters for cultures to which Dr. Wolfe-Simon will add high doses of arsenic but no phosphorus (September 2010). This image relates to an article that appeared in the Dec. 2, 2010, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon at NASA Astrobiology Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., and colleagues was titled, "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus." view more
Credit: Image © 2010 Henry Bortman