Yesterday their was a NASA press release about a bacteria that uses arsenic as part of its DNA. This doesn't really mean that it is based on arsenic, like every other life form on earth it relies of the ability of carbon atoms to form four strong covalent bonds. Instead what is truly interesting is that by using arsenic instead of phosphorus in the backbone of its DNA the bacteria is performing a biochemical trick that nobody ever realized was possible.
The implication for science fiction that is that while realistic aliens will be limited in what they can do by basic physical laws, the details of there metabolisms would be impossible to predict. What we see as toxic minerals or dangerous industrial chemical waste might be lunch for them.
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