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NASA's arsenic life study stirs up controversy, criticism

Sat, 05/28/2011 - 14:53 by Yasser Ali

The discovery of what a NASA scientist claims is an example of alien life has provoked an exciting controversy among scientists.

Gene allows plants to tolerate arsenic

Fri, 06/11/2010 - 11:06 by Pankaj Damin

West Lafayette, Ind. -- U.S. scientists say they have used genetic manipulation in research to identify a gene that allows plants to clear soil and water contaminated by arsenic.

Purdue University researchers led by Professors Jody Banks and David Salt said they isolated a gene that allows a type of fern (Pteris vittata) to tolerate up to 1,000 times more arsenic than other plants.

Without a genome sequenced for Pteris vittata, Banks and Salt used a method of gene identification called yeast functional complementation to identify the gene. They combined thousands of different Pteris vittata genes into thousands of yeast cells that were missing a gene that makes them tolerant to arsenic.

Possible cause of arsenic in water found

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 10:22 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said they may have discovered what caused arsenic to appear in drinking water in Bangladesh.

Researchers at the U.S. school's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering said in an MIT release Sunday the arsenic concentration found underground in Bangladesh may be due to the use of irrigated agriculture as well as the construction of villages with ponds.

Bangladesh began struggling with widespread arsenic poisoning after the country's residents began consuming groundwater instead of water from surface sources like ponds and rivers.