[meteorite-list] Mad Cow and Meteorites.

From: Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:57 2004
Message-ID: <20040103185952.51991.qmail_at_web40109.mail.yahoo.com>

"We still had hamburgers for dinner that night,"
he said. "The odds of
being hit by a meteorite are much greater than
anyone in America dying
of mad cow disease."

   Interestingly, there is some science behind the
speculation that something like a prion protovirus may
have been carried to the early Earth by a meteorite,
since life on Earth seems to have developed within 400
Mya after cooling. But no one can be sure yet, since
there are also models for a rapid RNA world that might
work.
   Certainly the prion that causes mad cow was not
brought by a meteorite though, since it is too
host-specific. Unless there are cows in space. Now
that would make interesting meteorites. :)

Francis Graham


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Received on Sat 03 Jan 2004 01:59:52 PM PST