{"id":3668,"date":"2010-12-12T12:57:40","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T17:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2019-12-15T17:41:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T22:41:13","slug":"the-agency-that-cried-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=3668","title":{"rendered":"The Agency That Cried “Awesome!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThose whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Anonymous ancient proverb<\/p>\n

In the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone<\/em>, Greek resistance fighters and Allied demolition experts set out to destroy a nest of large cannons so that a rescue convoy can go through the straits the guns overlook.\u00a0 A young Greek who’s part of the mission goes after a group of Germans gunslinger-style, jeopardizing the venture.\u00a0 The Germans cut him to ribbons.\u00a0 When the mission members meet at their rendezvous point, his sister Mar\u00eda (Ir\u00edni Papp\u00e1s) says to his partner Andr\u00e9as (Anthony Quinn, obligatory at that time whenever swarthy ethnics were required): “Tell me what happened.”\u00a0 Andr\u00e9as replies: “He forgot why we came.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, NASA administrators forgot why we came.\u00a0 They forgot the agency\u2019s mission, they forgot science, they forgot their responsibility to their own people and to the public.\u00a0 Instead, they apparently decided that all publicity is good, as long as they don’t misspell your name.<\/p>\n

Ever since I became fully conscious, I’ve dreamed of humanity exploring the stars.\u00a0 These dreams were part of the reason I left my culture, my country, my family and came over here, determined to do research.\u00a0 Every launch made my heart leap.\u00a0 I wept when I saw the images sent by the Voyagers, Sojourner<\/em> negotiating Martian rocks.\u00a0 I kept thinking that perhaps in my lifetime we might find an unambiguous independent life sample.\u00a0 Then, at long last, astrobiology would lift off and whole new scientific domains would unfurl and soar with it.<\/p>\n

Instead of that, last week we got bacterial isolate GFAJ-1.\u00a0 We got an agency which appears so desperate that it shoved experiments with inadequate controls into a high profile journal and then shouted from the rooftops that its researchers had discovered a new form of life (de facto false<\/a>, even if the results of the increasingly<\/a> beleaguered<\/a> Science<\/em> paper stand).<\/p>\n

This is not the first or only time NASA administrators have been callously cavalier.\u00a0 Yet even though the latest debacle didn\u2019t claim lives like the Challenger<\/em> incident did, it was just as damaging in every other way.\u00a0 And whereas the Challenger<\/em> disaster was partly instigated by pressure from the White House (Reagan needed an exclamation point for his State of the Union address), this time the hole in NASA\u2019s credibility is entirely self-inflicted.\u00a0 Something went wrong in the process, and all the gatekeeping functions failed disastrously.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s investigate a major claim in the Science<\/em> paper: that GFAJ-1 bacteria incorporate arsenic in their DNA, making them novel, unique, a paradigm shift.\u00a0 Others<\/a> have discussed the instability of the arsenate intermediates and of any resulting backbone.\u00a0 Three more points are crucial:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 This uniqueness (not yet proved) has come about by non-stop selection pressure in the laboratory, not by intrinsic biochemistry: the parent bacterium in its normal environment uses garden-variety pathways and reverts to them as soon as the pressure is lifted.\u00a0 This makes the \u201cnovel life\u201d claim patently incorrect and the isolate no more exotic than the various metallophores and metallovores that many groups in that domain (Penny Boston, Ken Nealson) have been studying for decades.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 The arsenic-for-phosphorus substitution in the DNA is circumstantial at best.\u00a0 The paper contained no sequencing, no autoradiography, no cesium chloride density gradients.\u00a0 These are low-tech routine methods that nevertheless would give far more direct support to the authors\u2019 claims.\u00a0 Density gradients are what Meselson and Stahl used in 1958 to demonstrate that DNA replication was semi-conservative.\u00a0 Instead, Wolfe-Simon et al. used highly complex techniques that gave inconclusive answers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The reagents for the methods I just listed would cost less than $1,000 (total, not each). A round of sequencing costs $10 \u2013 the price of a Starbucks latte. In a subsequent interview, Oremland (the paper\u2019s senior author) said that they did not have enough money to do more experiments. This is like saying that you hired the Good Year blimp to take you downtown but didn\u2019t have enough money for a taxi back home.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Even if some of the bacteria incorporate arsenic in their DNA, it means nothing if they cannot propagate.\u00a0 Essentially, they can linger as poison-filled zombies that will nonetheless register as \u201calive\u201d through such tests as culture turbidity and even sluggish metabolism.<\/p>\n

NASA spokespeople, as well as Wolfe-Simon and Oremland, have stated that the only legitimate and acceptable critiques are those that will appear in peer-reviewed venues \u2013 and that others are welcome to do experiments to confirm or disprove their findings.<\/p>\n

The former statement is remarkably arrogant and hypocritical, given the NASA publicity hyperdrive around the paper: embargoes, synchronized watches, melodramatic hints of \u201cnew life\u201d, of a discovery with \u201cmajor impact on astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life\u201d.\u00a0 This is called leading with your chin.\u00a0 And if you live by PR, you cannot act shocked and dismayed when you die by PR.<\/p>\n

As for duplicating the group\u2019s experiments, the burden of proof lies with the original researchers. This burden increases if their claims are extraordinary.\u00a0 The team that published the paper was being paid to do the work by a grant (or, possibly, by earmarked NASA money, which implies much less competition). For anyone else to confirm or disprove their findings, they will have to carve effort, time and money out of already committed funds — or apply for a grant specifically geared to this, and wait for at least a year (usually more) for the money to be awarded.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially having to clean up someone else\u2019s mess on your own time and dime.<\/p>\n

Peer review is like democracy: it\u2019s the worst method, except for all others.\u00a0 It cannot avoid agendas, vendettas, pet theories or hierarchies.\u00a0 But at least it does attempt judgment by one\u2019s peers.\u00a0 Given the kernel of this paper, its reviewers should have been gathered from several disciplines.\u00a0 I count at least four: a microbiologist with expertise in extremophiles, a molecular biologist specializing in nucleic acids, a biochemist studying protein and\/or lipid metabolism and a biophysicist versed in crystallography and spectrometry.<\/p>\n

Some journals have started to name reviewers; Science<\/em> does not, and \u201castrobiology\u201d is a murky domain.\u00a0 If the scientific community discovers that the reviewers for the GFAJ-1 paper were physicists who write sciency SF<\/a> and had put on the astrobio hat for amusement and\/or convenience, Lake Mono will look mild and hospitable compared to the climate that such news will create.<\/p>\n

Because of the way scientific publishing works, a lot of shaky papers appear that never get corrected or retracted.\u00a0 As a dodge, authors routinely state that “more needs to be done to definitively prove X.”\u00a0 Even if later findings of other labs completely contradict their conclusions, they can argue that the experiments were correct, if not their interpretation.\u00a0 Colleagues within each narrow domain know these papers and\/or labs \u2013 and quietly discount them. But if such results get media attention (which NASA courted for this paper), the damage is irreversible.<\/p>\n

People will argue that science is self-correcting.\u00a0 This is true in the long run \u2013 and as long as science is given money to conduct research.\u00a0 However, the publication of that paper in Science<\/em> was a very public slap in the face of scientists who take time and effort to test their theories.\u00a0 NASA\u2019s contempt for the scientific process (and for basic intelligence) during this jaw-dropping spectacle was palpable.\u00a0 It blatantly endorsed perceived \u201csexiness\u201d and fast returns at the expense of careful experimentation. This is the equivalent of rewarding the mindset and habits of hedge fund managers who walk away with other people\u2019s lifelong savings.<\/p>\n

By disbursing hype, NASA administrators handed ready-made ammunition to the already strong and growing<\/a> anti-intellectual, anti-scientific groups in US society: to creationists and proponents of (un)intelligent design; to climate change denialists and young-earth biblical fundamentalists; to politicians who have been slashing everything \u201cnon-essential\u201d (except, of course, war spending and capital gains income).\u00a0 It jeopardized the still-struggling discipline of astrobiology.\u00a0 And it jeopardized the future of a young scientist who is at least enthusiastic about her research even if her critical thinking needs a booster shot \u2013 or a more rigorous mentor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps NASA\u2019s administrators were under pressure to deliver something, anything to stave off further decrease of already tight funds.\u00a0 I understand their position \u2013 and even more, that of their scientists.\u00a0 NIH and NSF are in the same tightening vise, and the US has lost several generations of working scientists in the last two decades.\u00a0 Everyone is looking for brass rings because it\u2019s Winner Take All \u2013 and \u201call\u201d is pennies.\u00a0 We have become beggars scrambling for coins tossed out of rich people\u2019s carriages, buskers and dancing bears, lobsters in a slowly heating pot.<\/p>\n

NASA should not have to resort to circus acts as the price for doing science.\u00a0 It’s in such circumstances that violence is done to process, to rigor, to integrity.\u00a0 We are human.\u00a0 We have mortgages and doctors\u2019 bills and children to send to college, yes.\u00a0 But we are scientists, first and foremost.\u00a0 We are \u2013 must be \u2013 more than court jesters or technicians for the powerful.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t hold the line, no one else will.<\/p>\n

The paper:<\/strong> Wolfe-Simon F, Blum JS, Kulp TR, Gordon GW, Hoeft SE, Pett-Ridge J, Stolz JF, Webb SM, Weber PK, Davies PCW, Anbar AD, Oremland RS (2010) A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus. DOI: 10.1126\/science.1197258.<\/p>\n

My early summation of this paper:<\/strong> Arsenic and Odd Lace<\/a><\/p>\n

Images:<\/strong> Top, Mar\u00eda tries to keep her brother focused on the mission in The Guns of Navarone; <\/em>middle, the Meselson and Stahl experiment; bottom, Quiros circus, Spain, 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThose whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.\u201d \u2013 Anonymous ancient proverb In the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone, Greek resistance fighters and Allied demolition experts set out to destroy a nest of large cannons so that a rescue convoy can go through the straits the guns overlook.\u00a0 A young Greek […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology-and-culture","category-science","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}