# What's the deal about the non-DNA life discovered?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 20, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838 "2013-12-20T18:24:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838/1 "2013-12-20T18:24:55Z")

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I remember that a few years back scientists were all atwitter about some new species discovered (in the ocean maybe?) that didn’t have DNA.

Since then … zilch, nada. Were the original observations found to be wrong?

My Google fu is failing – I’m not finding the right set of search terms.

What’s the latest?

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838/2 "2013-12-20T18:33:50Z")

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Maybe this …?

> **[National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)**
>
> Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration.

Discredited here …

> **[Arsenic life does not exist after all](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328493-300-arsenic-life-does-not-exist-after-all/)**
>
> Controversial claims that bacteria can exchange phosphorus in their DNA with arsenic have failed to be replicated

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**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838/3 "2013-12-20T18:38:54Z")

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Scooped by **Duckster**.

Search terms I used were “life without DNA”

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838/4 "2013-12-20T18:42:53Z")

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I don’t recall any announcement of life without DNA. As indicated in the posts above, the biggest news recently was the apparent discovery of a bacterium that substituted arsenic for phosphorus in its DNA, a claim that has since been refuted.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-about-the-non-dna-life-discovered/676838/5 "2013-12-20T18:47:37Z")

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[Original thread from 2010,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=587697) the year we made contact.