Revolution or Evolution? Casing the Impact of Digital Media on the Rhetoric of Science

Abstract

In December 2010, a team of NASA researchers led by astrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon made a remarkable announcement: Bacteria living in California’s Mono Lake can replace the phosphorous in their biomolecules with arsenic (Wolfe-Simon, Blum, Kulp, Gordon, Hoeft, Pett-Ridge et al., 2010). A first-of-its-kind discovery, the extraordinary biochemistry of species GFAJ-1 offered “proof” that life could exist in environments without phosphorous; that is, in environments whose chemistries differ vastly from ours. In other words, different kinds of life might exist on planets with scant resemblance to Earth.

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