Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

#9: New life found at Mono Lake?

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Number 9 in the top 11 of 2011 for Mono Lake is, well, a controversial one, to say the least. It actually began in December of 2010 when NASA held a press conference to “discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.” The announcement rocked the science community, and the roots of the study were right here in what locals call “Mono muck.” The report stated that a strain of bacteria found in the lake’s sediment was able to live on arsenic and incorporate it into its DNA—the implications are vast. Subsequently there has been much controversy over the announcement and the scientific report itself—controversy that continues today. The scientific process takes time, but in the meantime it’s safe to say that we were pretty excited that the gammaproteobacteria named GFAJ-1 made headlines around the world, and, to us, just getting to see the scientific process alive and kicking at Mono Lake is more affirmation of why Mono Lake is worth saving.

The arsenic-loving bacteria GFAJ-1 even got its own bumper sticker, shown here by Santiago Escruceria, Outdoor Experiences Manager. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

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