NASA today issued a press release concerning a discovery with implications for astrobiology and the origin of life on Earth. Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes...

A rumor is circulating that tomorrow’s NASA press briefing will reveal discovery of a ‘shadow biosphere’ that uses arsenic instead of phosphorous as a building-block of life. The term shadow biosphere refers to the theory that in the case of multiple genesis events on Earth, that exotically different types of microbial life could...