[meteorite-list] Alien Life

From: Michael Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:47:09 -0700
Message-ID: <C6C78FBD.7149%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Hi Sterling,
        OK, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
        Best wishes, Michael
PS: But please, we don't need no stinking badges!


> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 12:45 AM
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Cc: <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>; "Michael Blood" <mlblood at cox.net>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] COME ON! Alien Life Topic
>
>> 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
>>>
>>
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>
Received on Sat 05 Sep 2009 06:47:09 AM PDT