Arsenic-munching germ redefines "life as we know it" - Yahoo! News

Getty – The 'Tufa' formations will slowly be re-submerged into the briny water where they were formed by an underwater …
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A strange, salty lake in California has yielded an equally strange bacterium that thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it, researchers reported on Thursday. The bacteria do not merely eat arsenic -- they incorporate the toxic element directly into their DNA, the researchers said. The finding shows just how little scientists know about the variety of life forms on Earth, and may greatly expand where they should be looking for life on other planets and moons, the NASA-funded team said. "We have cracked open the door to what is possible for life elsewhere in the universe," Felisa Wolfe-Simon of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and U.S. Geological Survey, who led the study, told a news conference.