Science retracts controversial ‘arsenic life’ paper 15 years after it was published
By 
Rachel Brazil2025-07-30T13:30:00
Contentious study continues to make waves as authors and researchers argue over whether action is proportionate and beneficial
A controversial 2010 paper claiming to have discovered bacteria substituting arsenic for phosphorus in its DNA has been retracted by the journal Science. While fraud is not suspected, the move was warranted 15 years after its publication due to changes in retraction criteria, says Science’s editor-in-chief, H Holden Thorp.
The study, funded by Nasa, made remarkable claims about the bacterium GFAJ-1, found in the saline and arsenic-filled Mono Lake in California. When the strain was cultured without phosphorus, and in high arsenic concentrations, the team detected arsenate that it believed was associated with the bacterium’s DNA.
The findings were met with scepticism, and only published in print in 2011, alongside eight technical comments. In 2012, two papers unsuccessfully attempted to replicate the results, concluding that although the microbe could tolerate arsenic, it was not incorporated into its DNA.