[meteorite-list] Family Claims MeteoriteFellInTheirCourtyardinIndia

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 19:05:28 -0600
Message-ID: <004501c7daea$9376d730$a239010a_at_bellatrix>

Hi Sergey-

I've been in India many times, and for extended periods. During most of
those times, I was working with scientists and physicians, so I feel
quite confident about my comments that Indian scientists (a
generalization, of course) do often see the world differently, and also
that the public view of science is quite different in India than in the
developed west.

I've never been to Russia, but since skepticism and pseudoscience are
interests of mine, I consider myself well informed about scientific
opinion in Russia. In particular, I note that there have been several
panels of important scientists with sterling international reputations
who have urged the Russian government and Russian educational
institutions to address the problem of rampant pseudoscience in their
country. Their letters, which resemble the sort that groups of Nobel
laureates in the U.S. offer up in regards to Intelligent Design, are far
broader than any single area. It is quite clear that many respected
scientists in Russia consider this to be a serious problem.

IMO Russian science, both institutional and public, has yet to recover
from the massive politicization of the Soviet era. That certainly does
not mean that good science doesn't come from Russia or the former Soviet
countries (indeed, most of the foundations of modern meteoritics came
from Czechoslovakia, while it was a Soviet satellite). All it means is
that there may be more chaff mixed with the wheat in some countries-
Russia included.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergey Vasiliev" <petrovich at sv-meteorites.com>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>;
<Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 6:49 PM
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] Family Claims
MeteoriteFellInTheirCourtyardinIndia


> Hello Chris and all,
>
> Chris, you point is good. Really. But somehow I have a feeling that
> all your
> logic is based on the newspaper's articles.
> You had been in India for a few days - I got it. Have you been in
> Russia? If
> so, where did you meet the scientists? In the church?
>
> As for the meteorites, MetBulls from #1(1957) till #49(1970) were
> printed in
> Moscow.
> Here is a link:
> http://meteoriticalsociety.org/simple_template.cfm?code=pub_bulletin
>
> Just a link to think about ;-)
>
> All the best to all!
> Sergey
Received on Thu 09 Aug 2007 09:05:28 PM PDT