[meteorite-list] COME ON! Alien Life Topic

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 23:45:22 -0500
Message-ID: <08553EF9518C47FFB28AB573FDC2F036_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Michael, List,

    I completely agree that the occasional movie
reference is non-meteoritic (unless the movie is
about meteors, asteroids and such), but the
connection between meteorites and life that
may exist off this planet is as intertwined as
any two topics could be.

    The hypothesis that meteorites could bring
life (or alien life) to Earth is almost as old as
the recognition that meteorites actually do fall
from the sky. In 1864, Louis Pasteur performed
careful experimentation to extract, without
contamination, a sample from the depths of
the Orgueil meteorite to culture for micro-organisms.
He did so because he was searching for an
alternate origin for life on Earth in distinction
to spontaneous generation, which he had already
disproved in his laboratory.

    The result of his search for microbes in Orgeil
was negative, BTW.

    Every few decades there is a meteorite-life
issue that becomes a matter of hot dispute in
science and the broader world. The latest was
the Martian meteorite with traces of microbial
life, or was there? There were many hundreds
of posts on this List to one side or the other as
that dispute raged on.

    It's an on-going debate. (There was another
claim of fossils in Orgueil in 2004!) The entire
question of the existence of any life off this
planet is germane to meteorites even if specific
meteoritic evidence is not in question. The two
subjects are intimately related. IF there is any
other life, meteorites would potentially present
the easiest evidence to access and the only
samples of "otherworldly" matter that we have.
If there is no life (as has been alleged in these
posts), much research on meteorites is being
wasted.

    We all have to recognize that everyone of us
brings a different perspective to the subject of
meteorites. For example, the question of whether
or not a particular meteorite was or was not a
"hammer" is of only the mildest scientific interest,
being a purely anecdotal matter, and is largely
irrelevant.

    However, it is to be recognized that that subject
is of great interest in the arcana of collectorship
and highly important to some (but not to others).
However, since all of us DO bring a different
perspective to the subject, it would be, well,
impolite, for those who are less interested to tell
those that are most interested to stop posting
about it. Likewise, the long sequences of Posts
about the cost per gram of this or that stone -- it's
like listening to the farmers down at the round
table at the Chatterbox Cafe talk about the price
of corn or hogs -- intensely interesting if you
sell corn or hogs, but if not it's just fatback talk...

    This is not the Meteorite Collectors' List, nor
the Meteorite Commerce List, nor the Meteorite
Market List, nor the Meteorite Hunter's List, nor
the Meteorite Trade and Freebies List, nor the
Meteorite Impact List, not the Meteorite Crater
List, nor the Meteorite History List, nor the
Meteorite Stamp and Coin List, nor the Meteor
Shower List, nor the Meteorite People List, nor
the Meteorite Theoretical Science List, nor the
Meteorite Petrology List, nor the Asteroid List,
the Planetary List, the Interstellar Dust List,
nor the Alien Life List, nor even The Meteorite
Quibble List --- it's ALL OF THOSE THINGS.

    It's the Meteorite [Inclusive] List, and it's far
better off for being what it is than if it were too
narrowly defined, maddening as it may be at
times.


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Blood" <mlblood at cox.net>
To: "GREG LINDH" <geeg48 at msn.com>; <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
Cc: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:01 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] COME ON! Alien Life Topic


> PLEASE stop this Alian Live and Movies/TV
> Crapolla on the METEORITE LIST.
> MLB
>
Received on Thu 03 Sep 2009 12:45:22 AM PDT