And now for something completely different

[Sebastiaan56]

So what does the brains trust reckon about this one?

LankaWeb – POLONNARUWA METEORITE WITH EVIDENCE OF LIFE FROM OUTER SPACE DESCRIBED THE MOST IMPORTANT FIND IN 500 YEARS (http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/01/13/polonnaruwa-meteorite-with-evidence-of-life-from-outer-space-described-the-most-important-find-in-500-years/) and the paper; http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Polonnaruwa-meteorite.pdf

I smell getting ready for 1st April but am willing to be proved wrong. Im thinking Piltdown Man..... Of course if it is real then life just changed big time but its all a bit too perfect for my liking.

[enelef]

Interesting paper.:rolleyes:
For myself, I think it would be just a tad arrogant to believe the universe was built as our private playground.

The odds for life in the universe, while small, do exist and as the universe is rather big, there is every chance that some form of life exists elsewhere.
Whether it thrives or is intelligent - is yet to be found out.

On a good note, the red rain and the fossils where all bigger than 2uM, so a good quality fine filter (2micon) on the DC will keep the workshop clear.

Now i just need a really big dictionary to understand all of the words in that paper.:?

[jimbur]

Who knows. One of the authors, Chandra Wickramasinghe, was a colleague of Fred Hoyle. He's been looking for proof of his theory for a long time.

[BobL]

I had a read of the original article and have to say I am skeptical - I have some experience with contamination of meteorites and it's so easy for them to be contaminated.

Some further comments


It would have been far more credible to see the claims published in more of a mainstream journal, and one in which the Lead Author is not on the editorial board :oo:
I would have liked to see a meteortical mineralogist on the author list since none of the authors are expert in this field.
We would need to know far more about this meteorite before making these claims. Something few people realize is that the earth has made many meteors and tektites are one example. When a large meteorite bombards a planet or planetoid large chunks of the parent body can be blasted off into outer space. It is quite feasible that the meteorite being studied is just a piece of earth that has come back home. For example we have definite samples of Mars and the moon obtained in this way (I have done some research on some Martian Meteorites)


Let me give you an example of how easy it is to contaminate meteorites. In 1987 I went to a conference where a french Scientist was making grand claims about a porous meteorite that had a earth-like lead (Pb) isotope signature and that no other meteorite had these lead isotopic signature. The scientist was adamant that this meteorite had been handled with great care and did not ever have a chance of being contaminated. What was pretty clear was that this meteorite had been exposed to the air and due to small changes in atmospheric pressure had acted like a sponge and sucked up aerosols from leaded petrol exhaust. This was far the first time this had happened and is why many lead-in-blood analyses carried out in the 1940's, 50's and 60's were so wrong.

[artme]

Hmmmmm........

[Bushmiller]

I confess I love the romantic notion of intelligent life form elsewhere in the universe. If that is the case I am even more hopeful it is friendly.

However, I sometimes ask myself why is it that, if other life form exists, it hasn't already found us. Perhaps it has found us and didn't like what it saw :( . We our totally out of our league when it comes to space travel. Perhaps it is the same for other life forms. My understanding is that we are on the edge of the universe (what's beyond the edge :? ) and perhaps too remote to warrant a visit.

Regards
Raul

[Sebastiaan56]

I thought this might be the response. OK so that means I ignore the paper from the Korean scientist claiming to have cloned it? :roflmao:

[jimbur]

I confess I love the romantic notion of intelligent life form elsewhere in the universe. Perhaps it has found us and didn't like what it saw :(
Regards
Raul
Agreed Paul, perhaps they had the same romantic notion, visited us and found no intelligent life.:D (obviously they are not woodworkers or they'd have been after the trees)

[Bushmiller]

Agreed Paul, perhaps they had the same romantic notion, visited us and found no intelligent life.:D (obviously they are not woodworkers or they'd have been after the trees)

Even if they weren't woodworkers surely they would have at least participated in "Nothing At All To Do With Woodwork" :rolleyes:.

Regards
Paul

[jimbur]

Even if they weren't woodworkers surely they would have at least participated in "Nothing At All To Do With Woodwork" :rolleyes:.

Regards
Paul
Maybe they didn't like the upgrades:D

[Sebastiaan56]

Here is another learned retort Life in a meteorite: Claims by N. C. Wickramasinghe of diatoms in a meteorite are almost certainly wrong. (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/01/15/life_in_a_meteorite_claims_by_n_c_wickramasinghe_of_diatoms_in_a_meteorite.html)

[jimbur]

Here is another learned retort Life in a meteorite: Claims by N. C. Wickramasinghe of diatoms in a meteorite are almost certainly wrong. (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/01/15/life_in_a_meteorite_claims_by_n_c_wickramasinghe_of_diatoms_in_a_meteorite.html)
As I said earlier, he's been looking for proof for years. A very single-minded bloke.

[enelef]

Wow, thank god for that.

I can put my dictionary away now and stop translating the first doc paper.:p