While it's not exactly a current finding, this story is actually pretty cool. NASA scientists found a bacteria that can survive and grow in arsenic, instead of phosphorous. What's really cool about this is that the arsenic can actually replace phosphorous in the DNA of the cell. Damn cool stuff. Possible topic for a future novel???

Here's a link to a good article on this: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131761687/scientists-find-bacterium-that-survives-on-arsenic