Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments

[pokerfan]

ET at last?

Algae-like structures inside a Sri Lankan meteorite are clear evidence of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout the universe, say astrobiologists.



Wallis and co. are convinced that the lines of evidence they have gathered are powerful and persuasive. “This provides clear and convincing evidence that these obviously ancient remains of extinct marine algae found embedded in the Polonnaruwa meteorite are indigenous to the stones and not the result of post-arrival microbial contaminants,” they conclude.

There’s no question that a claim of this kind is likely to generate controversy. Critics have already pointed out that the stones could have been formed by lightning strikes on Earth although Wallis and co. counter by saying there was no evidence of lightning at the time of the fireball and that in any case, the stones do not bear the usual characteristics of this kind of strike. What’s more, the temperatures generated by lightning would have destroyed any biological content.

Nevertheless, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and Wallis and co. will need to make their samples and evidence available to the scientific community for further study before the claims will be taken seriously.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512381/astrobiologists-find-ancient-fossils-in-fireball-fragments/

[cleanhippie]

1. This could be just what the world really needs right now; proof of life off the planet.

Proof of extraterrestrial life, even bacterium, will change everything. It will spur a renewed interest in science and exploration, and may even signal the end of organized religion.

[Posteritatis]

6. Nah. The primary author's a known, long-time, consistent crackpot. (nt)

[cleanhippie]

9. I know nothing about him. Why do you say that?

[Posteritatis]

10. He claims one thing or another came from space every few years

Stratospheric bacteria (of identical species to stuff on the ground), influenza, SARS, everything. He started with his conclusion and shunts every paper he publishes to fit it - and the only place that regularly accepts his stuff is itself a crackpot journal not taken seriously by anyone in or near the field.

In this case here geologists and paleontologists went over the material he claimed to have found. The former confirmed that the rocks aren't meteorites in the first place (the difference between meteorites and Earth-based rock is pretty stark), and the latter pointed out that if the stuff in them were (1) not fossilized and (2) existing terrestrial critters.

It's roughly par for the course - he'll either jump to conclusions off scant evidence, or fabricate evidence to support conclusions he began with, only disreputable publications like the Journal of Cosmology will accept his work, and he's been doing this for years. He's just throwing "it came from spaaaaace!" at the wall over and over in the hopes that something will stick.

[cleanhippie]

11. Well, shit.

[Jim__]

7. "the idea of life being a cosmic phenomenon is fully in tune with Buddhist as well as Vedic ...

philosophy"

From a 2006 article in the Asian Tribune:

Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe : "the idea of life being a cosmic phenomenon is fully in tune with Buddhist as well as Vedic philosophy."

Amongst the myriad stars
I stand alone
and wonder how much life
and love there was tonight

He wrote it at the age of 15.

From his childhood he has mysteriously felt connected with the universe. Being a Buddhist the idea of life having a cosmic connection was in tune with his philosophy.

From the OP article:

This is an idea put forward by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, the latter being a member of the team who has carried out this analysis.

[cleanhippie]

8. There are exceptions to every rule. My point remains valid.

Perhaps I should have been clearer, but religion as we know it would change forever, and hopefully even die off, if extraterrestrial life were discovered. And none too soon. Religions that invoke a deity and the supernatural are holding us back as a species. YMMV.

[exboyfil]

14. Nope

C.S. Lewis has an answer for it. The vast distances in space serve as fence for separate creation events, and presumably different ways in which redemption/reconciliation will play out with the Deity. One speculation is that worlds exist in which those created in God's image never rebelled from the creator. Would those "Edens" ever develop technology? Themes used in several science fiction stories.

Evangelizing to the Ferengi so to speak.

[cleanhippie]

15. Yep

If its all speculation, which it is, how can you tell me "nope"?

[Orsino]

2. Dan Brown spoiler!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Point

[freshwest]

4. I can remember when there'd be no debate about ET life forms, it was accepted as logical.

Then along came Reagan and Robertson and the rest of the grifters...

[progressoid]

3. Aw shit.

Andromeda Strain.

[Posteritatis]

5. Meh, it's a Wickramasinghe article and therefore a load. (nt)

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Wickramsinghe *again* ? How tedious. nt

[DetlefK]

13. Measurements and data seem okay, but his analysis is clearly biased:

the paper:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1303/1303.1845.pdf

page 3:
When he checks the Oxygen-Isotopes of the meteorite, why doesn't he also check the terrestrial stone he picked up from the site as a control-sample?
Okay, the meteorite's composition of Oxygen-isotopes is somewhat typical for meteorites.

page 4:
If the image really shows a fossilized biological structure, where the fuck are Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Phosphate and Sulfur in the EDX-spectra? Life is more than just Carbon and Oxygen!

page 5:
Quote: "The EDX data reveals a lack of detectable nitrogen and an anomalous C/O ratio (similar to bitumen) clearly establishing that this obviously biological form could not possibly represent a modern biological contaminant."
Counter-argument: Low Nitrogen-levels are typical for fossilization. That doesn't prove anything about alien origins.
And the thin flagellum? Maybe it's not that thin because it's an alien that evolved in a low-gravity, low-pressure environment. Maybe that's a result of fossilization?

page6/7:
Conclusion: This is a meteorite and those are most likely fossilized microorganisms.
No conclusive proof, apart from the thin flagellum, that they could be aliens.



My guess: A long time ago, a meteorite struck earth and the explosion shot terrestrial rock into space which turned into a meteor orbiting the Sun. That rock now fell back to earth.

And for the timeline:
The first paper was published on January 10th 2013. (Wickramasinghe et al., Fossil diatoms in a new carbonaceous meteorite, Journal of Cosmology, Vol. 21, No. 37)
The meteorite came down December 29th 2012.
That's 13 days, which is absolutely ridiculous when taking all the traveling and shipping of the samples into account.
Meteorite comes down.
1 day until the police has collected the samples and sent them to the Medical Research Institute in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
1+ days for analyzing them there.
2+ days for sending them to Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
1+ days of measurement.
1+ days of analysis.
That leaves 7 days (or less) for writing a paper, handing it in, getting it accepted and getting it published. That's so incredibly fast (the process normally takes several months) that words fail.