A microscopic discovery in a Californian lake ignited significant scientific debate over a decade ago.
Researchers claimed to have found bacteria utilising arsenic – an element lethal to known life forms – for growth. If validated, this would have profoundly expanded life’s known parameters, on Earth and beyond.
However, numerous research groups failed to replicate the findings, arguing it is biologically unfeasible for an organism to use such a toxic element for DNA and proteins. Some scientists have since suggested the original experiments were compromised by undetected contaminants.
On Thursday, the journal Science, which first published the research, retracted it, though not because of misconduct on the researchers’ part.
“If the editors determine that a paper’s reported experiments do not support its key conclusions, even if no fraud or manipulation occurred, a retraction is considered appropriate,” the journal’s editor-in-chief Holden Thorp wrote in the statement announcing the retraction.
The researchers disagree with the journal’s decision and stand by their data. It’s reasonable to pull a paper for major errors or suspected misconduct — but debates and disagreements over the findings are part of the scientific process, said study co-author Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University.
“One doesn’t retract a paper because the interpretation is controversial, or even because most disagree with the interpretation,” wrote Anbar in an email. “At least, that hasn’t been the case until now.”
Science has more frequently retracted papers for reasons beside fraud in recent years, said Thorp and Vada Vinson, Science’s executive editor, wrote in a blog post.
NASA helped fund the original work. The space agency’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said in a statement that NASA does not support the retraction and encourages Science to reconsider.
