A: Hey there! Guess what happened?
B: Not much, just another day in Japan, right?

A: Nah, big news from back home! Remember that study about the bacteria using arsenic?
B: Arsenic? You mean the one from California's salty lake? I remember it was a big deal!

A: Exactly! Well, that paper has been retracted from Science journal. They said the data was flawed.
B: Wow, really? Even after all these years? NASA had a conference about it too, right?

A: Yup! At first, they said it would change biology textbooks. But now, other researchers couldn't replicate the results and created controversy.
B: I see... So, they think the data is incorrect but not that there was fraud or misconduct?

A: That's right! The editors of Science journal said their standards for retracting papers have become stricter now. If a paper's key conclusions aren't supported by its experiments, even without any fraud, they might consider it for retraction.
B: Interesting... I wonder what the authors think about this.

A: Well, they're not happy! They disagree with the standard and think it goes beyond research integrity issues.
B: Sounds like a tough pill to swallow for them. But hey, that's science for you, always evolving!
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A renowned scientific journal has retracted a paper 15 years after it was published.



Science on Thursday withdrew the work on a bacterium that was published by a team of researchers from NASA and other organizations in 2010.



The paper claimed that a bacterium collected in a saline lake in California could grow by using arsenic, which is highly toxic.



At the time, NASA held a news conference and said the finding was a major achievement that would alter biology textbooks.



The work attracted challenges by other researchers, and created controversy and criticism after their attempts to replicate it failed.



The Science journal's editors said they believe that the key conclusion of the paper is based on flawed data.
However, they expressed the view that there was no deliberate fraud or misconduct on the part of the authors.



The editors noted that "Science's standards for retracting papers have expanded." They added, "If the editors determine that a paper's reported experiments do not support its key conclusions, even if no fraud or manipulation occurred, a Retraction is considered appropriate."



The paper's authors have reacted sharply against the decision by the journal, saying, "We disagree with this standard, which extends beyond matters of research integrity."
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Quiz 1:
In which year was the retracted paper published?
A. 2005
B. 2010
C. 2015
D. 2020

Quiz 2:
Where was the bacterium that was the subject of the retracted paper collected from?
A. A freshwater lake in California
B. A saline lake in California
C. A freshwater lake in Nevada
D. A saline lake in Nevada

Quiz 3:
What was the key finding of the retracted paper according to NASA at the time?
A. A bacterium could grow by using water
B. A bacterium could grow by using arsenic, which is highly toxic
C. A bacterium could survive in extreme temperatures
D. A bacterium could communicate with other life forms