With 30-foot limestone spires dotting its shores, 70-square-mile Mono Lake just outside Yosemite National Park could pass for an extraterrestrial landscape. More than twice as salty as the ocean, Mono Lake's arsenic-laced waters support a vibrant ecosystem that is home to some bizarre earth-lings. Bacteria here not only can consume arsenic but-if a hotly debated finding from December holds up-may even be able to incorporate the toxin into their DNA in place of phosphorus.
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