|
|
|
|
On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
 Posted - 09/19/2013 : 19:23:22
|
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/organisms-originated-space-154844488.html#xJL1J7
| The team, from the University of Sheffield, made the discovery after sending a balloon high into the stratosphere. On its return they found organisms that were too large to have originated from Earth. |
My skeptical senses are tingling. Just seems weird. He says only a volcano could launch something of that size into the stratosphere, but rules it out because there were no eruptions within the 3 years of the sample.
Why the 3 year cut off? Also can these things even survive in space? Was it still alive when they found it? If it was alive when they found it, but vacuum kills it, I think we can rule it out as an alien.
Also, if they are suggesting these things arrived within the last 3 years, but they are organisms we are familiar with, or at least have terrestrial genetics (and I think they would state if this is not the case), then these new arrivals would have to be from the same genetic lineage as life on Earth from 4 billion or whatever years ago. The assumption we'd have to be making is that life has steadily been streaming here for billions of years. That seems even more of a stretch.
Edit for formatting
|
 |
Edited by - On fire for Christ on 09/19/2013 19:28:07
|
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2013 : 23:03:56 [Permalink]
|
Well now. That's interesting. I don't even know enough to be skeptical about it yet. So I'm skeptical. Wouldn't DNA testing tell them something about its origin?
I posted a link to the story on facebook and asked if anyone wants to weigh in on it. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
 |
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2013 : 23:39:39 [Permalink]
|
This doesn't look good either:
http://journalofcosmology.com/AuthorGuidelines.html
Peer Review
The Journal of Cosmology welcomes great ideas.
Authors should submit the names, affiliations, and email addresses of 5 scientists qualified to review their paper. This information should be included on page 1 of your manuscript. Do not submit the names of friends or colleagues. The Editor may use these to guide the selection of referees... |
And there is this and more:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/72006.html
| A prestigious NASA scientist's discovery of fossilized remains of bacteria in meteorites could shake up everything we thought we knew about the evolution of life in the universe. However, Richard Hoover's decision to publish his work in the Journal of Cosmology, a highly controversial online publication, has apparently encouraged a dismissive -- or at least highly skeptical -- response in the scientific community.... |
It seems that the journal the paper is published in pushes panspermia. Plus there are many problems with past publications of papers. So yeah. The skeptical alarms are very loud now. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
|
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2013 : 00:28:27 [Permalink]
|
I think panspermia is a possible thing. I recall there was at least one experiment that showed microbes exposed to the vacuum and radiation of space survived quite well. (Maybe someone can find us a link?) Also, I went to a lecture when I as a kid around 1960 or so. A space scientist with NASA, whose surname might have been Forest or Forrest, said that objects small enough (like microbes) could enter the atmosphere without burning up.
Though I think there is probably at least some panspermia going on in this Galaxy, the proof of the pudding would be in the DNA (or in whatever alien genetic analog there might be for that). Whatever "microbe remains" were collected from that balloon, they were not alive, and there seems to be no record of anyone even trying to extract DNA from it. No genes found, no indication of even former life. If good old DNA could be extracted and sequenced, we could, as Kil points out, either see its relationship to earthly life, or see something completely different.
Being published in a crankish pseudo-journal of pseudo/fringe science is the very least of this conjecture's problems. Like Oakland, "There's no there there."
But panspermia as a hypothesis is itself worth bearing in mind. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
|
|
vikashbubble
New Member
3 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2013 : 00:47:34 [Permalink]
|
| I agree with what halfmooner said bacteria and micro organism are way more tougher then we can imagine there was a show on discovery channel which showed that these micro organism can survive intense heat of volcano so its not surprising to find these small one celled creatures on such high latitude. |
Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility |
|
|
|
 |
|
life from outer space
