eColve.com

A new type of bacteria that can eat As. These bugs use a different kind of photosynthesis (with light) that uses arsenic instead of water in the chain of electron acceptors.
Some of the immediate application that come to mind is arsenic uptake from contaminated waters.
read more at:
a) This article has some misinterpretation http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14537-arseniceating-bacteria-rewrite-evolutionary-history.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn14537
b) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7558448.stm

Here's the link for the abstract from Science (Aug 15th):
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/321/5891/888g.pdf

So basically ppl found bacteria using arsenite as electron donors in photosynthesis (transforming arsenite to arsenate). this finding may result in a different interpretation of earth evolution.

Since both arsenite and arsenate are toxic ( i might be wrong), I think it is hard to utilize these organisms to suck up arsenic pollution in natural environment.

In a salty hot spring near Mono Lake, California, researchers have found two new species of bacteria that use arsenic for photosynthesis, and require no oxygen to fuel the process. Researchers say the bacteria may be similar to those that existed on primordial Earth where oxygen was scarce, and may illustrate an important stage of how early life developed in mineral-rich waters over 2 billion years ago.

Arsenic is well-known for its toxicity; it was used so often as tool for homicide in the 1800s that it earned the nickname “king of poisons” [The Scientist]. Yet the newly discovered bacteria can not only tolerate the element, they require it to survive. One of the first steps most organisms perform in photosynthesis is to split water molecules, creating oxygen. Oxygen donates energy in the form of electrons to other molecules, setting off a chain reaction that eventually results in the building of sugars for the organism’s own food. For the red and green bacteria found in Mono Lake, arsenic plays the role of oxygen