If nothing else comes of all this ruckus, at least it was a good opportunity to sell some L.L. Bean boots, am I right? Sorry, I kid because I care. Well, not that much. But, like everyone else it seems, I did find Tom Clynes’s profile of Felisa Wolfe-Simon just published in Popular Science simultaneously fascinating and icky. Sort of like a mason jar full of anaerobic mud, I guess. Sure the rotten-egg aroma is off-putting but it also hints at something interesting and, dare I say, other-worldly lurking in the muck.
Huh?
David Dobbs and Carl Zimmer have each written thoughtful dissections-cum-rejoinders to the piece. And there is little for me to add. But I did want to call your attention to the timeline that Zimmer presents of the bi-polar responses to #arseniclife that played out in parallel online and in cytoplasm-space:
Notice anything missing there? Here, I fixed it:
30 September 2011 at 7:47 pm
Proud to be among the Yeoman on this one
1 October 2011 at 12:33 am
I mean, this chick is going to keep doing science. She won’t win a Nobel prize, but who does?! She’ll get a job, and she’ll get tenure, and she’ll be a better scientist than she is now. Anna Paquin won an Oscar a long time ago, and now she’s in a vampire show that is totally overrated. I’m totally fine with that. People are gonna find out whether arsenic sustains life whether she keeps researching or not. It’s fine. P.S. I feel like point #1 was one of my governing principles for a while and I think it might be terrible advice. Hi Neil Freeman!!
1 October 2011 at 4:35 pm
Thanks for the comments fellows. I was originally planning to title this post “First!” but I figured the present title would do a better job of smoking out the Obies.
Chelsea, I’ll have you know that “this chick” is extremely dismissive language.
On your other points, I agree entirely.