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'''Felisa Wolfe-Simon''' (b. 1978) is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1 ("Give Felisa A Job"), an arsenate-resistant bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of the phosphorus in its DNA, even implying that they were extra-terrestrial in origin. GFAJ-1 was isolated from arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California. Her team used a radioactive arsenate isotope (73-As) and exotic but inconclusive X-ray absorption studies (XAS measurements) at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL).<ref>http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i29/Two-Studies-Rebut-Arsenic-Based.html</ref>

'''Felisa Wolfe-Simon''' (b. 1978) is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1 ("Give Felisa A Job"), an arsenate-resistant bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of the phosphorus in its DNA, even implying that they were extra-terrestrial in origin. GFAJ-1 was isolated from arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California. Her team used a radioactive arsenate isotope (73-As) and exotic but inconclusive X-ray absorption studies (XAS measurements) at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL).<ref>http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i29/Two-Studies-Rebut-Arsenic-Based.html</ref>

These claims received wide publicity at the time in part because of a December 2, 2010 NASA press-release style video in which presentation and because of Wolfe-Simon's gender, youth and charisma, talking in the style of [[Carl Sagan]] but with more flouncing of her head and her long, curly hair.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuhBt03z8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiWlhNDMDHQ </ref></ref><ref>http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258.full.pdf (Online. Finally published in print in June 2011)</ref><ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20110107125521/http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/thriving-on-arsenic</ref> Experts soon expressed doubts in her claims but Wolfe-Simon delayed sharing samples of GFAJ-1 for six months. In March 2011, she appeared at TED2011.<ref>https://tedlive.ted.com/webcasts/2011/session/88</ref> In April 2011, [[Time magazine]] named her to their list of 100 most influential people in the world for 2011.<ref>http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066250,00.html</ref> Wolfe-Simon last posted on her Twitter account as "ironlisa" in May 2011.<ref>https://twitter.com/ironlisa</ref>

These claims received wide publicity at the time in part because of a December 2, 2010 NASA press-release style video in which presentation and because of Wolfe-Simon's gender, youth and charisma, talking in the style of [[Carl Sagan]] but with more flouncing of her head and her long, curly hair.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuhBt03z8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiWlhNDMDHQ </ref></ref><ref>http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258.full.pdf (Online. Finally published in print in June 2011)</ref><ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20110107125521/http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/thriving-on-arsenic</ref> Experts soon expressed doubts in her claims but Wolfe-Simon delayed sharing samples of GFAJ-1 for six months. In March 2011, she appeared at TED2011.<ref>https://tedlive.ted.com/webcasts/2011/session/88</ref> In April 2011, [[Time magazine]] named her to their list of 100 most influential people in the world for 2011.<ref>http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066250,00.html</ref> Wolfe-Simon last posted on her Twitter account as "ironlisa" in May 2011.<ref>https://twitter.com/ironlisa</ref> This "science by press conference" soon went the way of [[cold fusion]]. In June 2011, she left Ronald Oremland's U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. She commented "It's quite possible that my career is over."<ref>http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/scientist-strange-land</ref>

This "science by press conference" soon went the way of [[cold fusion]].

In 2011, University of British Columbia microbiologist Rosie Redfield, obtained a sample of GFAJ-1 from Wolfe-Simon's team and attempted to replicate the results. Redfield used more traditional laboratory techniques and in August 2011 published that she failed to reproduce Wolfe-Simon results.<ref>http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/news.2011.469.html</ref> In 2012, two reports refuting the most significant aspects of the original results were published in the same journal in which the original findings had been previously published.<ref> Erb, T. J.; Kiefer, P.; Hattendorf, B.; Gunther, D.; Vorholt, J. A. (2012). "GFAJ-1 Is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism". Science. 337 (6093): 467–470. doi:10.1126/science.1218455</ref><ref>Reaves, M. L.; Sinha, S.; Rabinowitz, J. D.; Kruglyak, L.; Redfield, R. J. (2012). "Absence of Detectable Arsenate in DNA from Arsenate-Grown GFAJ-1 Cells". Science. 337 (6093): 470–473. doi:10.1126/science.1219861.</ref>

As of 2014, Wolfe-Simon was working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.<ref>http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41056/title/Setting-the-Record-Straight/</ref> As of 2016, Wolfe-Simon was Annette Chan-Norris '65 and Evan Norris, MD, Endowed Visiting Professor in Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry and Physics at Mills College, a women's college, in Oakland, CA.<ref>https://www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/</ref>

 

 

 

As of 2014, Wolfe-Simon was working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.<ref>http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41056/title/Setting-the-Record-Straight/</ref>

 

As of 2016, Wolfe-Simon was Annette Chan-Norris '65 and Evan Norris, MD, Endowed Visiting Professor in Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry and Physics at Mills College, a women's college, in Oakland, CA.<ref>https://www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/</ref>

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