It’s not a good look for science when the most hyped, heavily marketed and supposedly transformative discoveries are later discredited.
Among the more spectacular cases were claims that a team of scientists had discovered fossilized Martian life in a meteorite and that spores found in amber and salt crystals had been revived after lying dormant for millions of years. In late July, the research journal Science finally retracted a headline-grabbing study published in 2010, which claimed scientists had found arsenic-based life. NASA had promoted the discovery as bolstering the case for the existence of extraterrestrials and a new tree of earthly life known as the "shadow biosphere.”
The good news is that the wider scientific community didn’t buy the hype. Soon after all these bombshells dropped, skeptical scientists took a look at the research and discovered the flaws.
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