[meteorite-list] Family Claims Meteorite Fell InTheirCourtyardinIndia

From: barrat at univ-brest.fr <barrat_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:28:30 +0200
Message-ID: <1186673310.46bb329e802b7_at_webmail-sdt.univ-brest.fr>

Hi Chris,

Sorry, but a sentence like "I wonder if there's a single "scientist" in India
who knows a thing about meteoritics?" is extremely shocking.

I am nearly sure that you can meet "scientists" as you described everywhere in
the world, i.e. in Europa of course, and probably in USA as well! But they are
not scientists!!! To answer to your question, you can be sure that you can find
more than one meteoricist in India!!!

Jean-Alix Barrat
Professor of Geochemistry at UBO-IUEM
Vice-President of the CNFG (French National committee of Geology)


Selon Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>:

> Hi Martin, Svend-
>
> To be clear, I wasn't referring to Indian meteorite collections, or the
> ultimate ability of Indian geologists to discriminate meteorites from
> meteorwrongs, but the general understanding of the science behind
> meteorite falls. I think there are certain countries that are much more
> likely to embrace bad science or pseudoscience (India and Russia come
> immediately to mind). That doesn't mean that you don't find good
> scientists, but it does mean that it's much easier to encounter people
> called "scientists" who are not, at least by most standards. Couple this
> with a public and media that is particularly credulous (and in the case
> of India, superstitious), and you get some very odd reports.
>
> I've experienced this first hand in India, where I've spent a lot of
> time. As an example, when I was in Rajastan for a solar eclipse in 1995,
> a "scientist"- from a university- came to our hotel the day before to
> distribute information about protecting ourselves from the harmful rays
> of eclipsed Sun. Not our eyes, mind you, but ourselves and any exposed
> food that could be "poisoned". He recommended that we stay in the hotel
> rooms with the curtains drawn until the event was over! A Indian friend
> in our party, pregnant at the time, had to work very hard to convince
> herself that she wasn't endangering her fetus by watching the eclipse.
> She is very well educated, but her cultural bias was difficult to
> overcome (the child is healthy and well, living now in Ithaca, NY). Much
> of my work in India has been with physicians, and again, it is
> remarkable some of the odd beliefs they have, even after years of
> medical school in the U.S.
>
> Please don't interpret anything I've said as a slam towards any
> individual scientists or institutions. It's just an observation about
> the degree to which culture and science can clash- more in some places
> than others. I expect that there are others on this list, who have spent
> time outside developed countries, who have encountered similar clashes.
> And while media stories about suspected meteorite falls tend to be of
> poor quality regardless of origin, this is not universally so in the
> U.S. or Europe. I do see some pretty good stories, especially follow-up
> stories. But I honestly have no recollection of _any_ credible report of
> a meteorite fall coming out of India (other than journal articles), and
> the media stories tend to show _really_ glaring errors- this most recent
> one being a good example (and quite typical, I'm afraid).
>
> Chris
>
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martin Altmann" <altmann at meteorite-martin.de>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 2:02 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Family Claims Meteorite Fell
> InTheirCourtyardinIndia
>
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> and exactely Svend,
>
> India has a long collecting tradition that rivals that from European
> countries. That it also the reason for Indian falls ranking among the
> most
> expensive meteorites in Cohen's and Ward's price lists.
>
> Perhaps the list-member of India can give us some more historical hints
> here.
>
> Best,
> Martin
>
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>
Received on Thu 09 Aug 2007 11:28:30 AM PDT