[meteorite-list] They're Leprechauns!

From: JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:16:11 -0400
Message-ID: <1D447CD4E6044B0ABF50C26271ABD0AB_at_ET>

Oh wait, leprechauns aren't little green men, they're little men with beards
that always wear green! Close enough.

Just once, I'd like to read one of these articles that doesn't include the
grains of sand analogy.

Phil Whitmer

http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20090910/News01/909100311&template=247art

September 10. 2009 6:59AM
Notre Dame panelists ponder: Is there life out there?
Experts talk about possibility, why it fascinates people.

By MARLYS WEAVER
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND - There's a good chance there are more living things in this
universe than just us. The trouble is finding them.

A panel of four specialists met for a discussion on extraterrestrials
Tuesday at the University of Notre Dame, mostly addressing the possibility
of extraterrestrials and humans' fascination with life "out there."

Seth Shostak, host of "Are We Alone?" on National Public Radio and senior
astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI),
opened the discussion. Michael Crowe, philosophy of science professor;
Kenneth Filchak from the department of biological sciences; and Philip J.
Sakimoto, former NASA scientist, completed the panel. Matthew Dowd, liberal
science professor, moderated.
Shostak explained that the major reasons many scientists believe there is
life on other planets is largely because there is "simply a lot of habitat,
a lot of real estate."

He explained that maybe a half to two-thirds of all stars have planets.

"And planets are like kittens; they come in litters," he said, estimating
there are as many planets as grains of sand on the Earth.

"But this is the only one with life?" he asked the crowd. "This is
fundamentally why we think there might be life out there."

Life on Earth "could be an enormous accident," he said, but suggested that
instead intelligent life is an evolutionary survival tactic and happens on
many planets.

Sakimoto reminded the audience that though extraterrestrial life might be
present in the universe, we have yet to find it.

"We would all like to believe that it could happen," he said, "but we don't
know yet."

"See something once, that's an anomaly," he said, sharing a science motto.
"See something twice, that's a theory."

Life on Mars?

Sakimoto was part of the science crew observing the findings of the first
Mars Viking Mission, the first successful landing on Mars in 1976. He shared
of the entire crew's enthusiasm and excitement, and the "depression" that
lingered after nearly finding life there. An experiment with Martian dirt
produced oxygen, but stopped a few days later.

After that disappointing day, the crew realized the oxygen production was
because of other factors, not life on Mars.

Sakimoto thinks people need to continue looking for life, but is less
certain that it exists.

"Is there one example of life anywhere other than here?" he asked. "And can
life arise even when conditions are right?"

Without answers to one of those two questions, Sakimoto said he was
skeptical about life on other planets.

Humans' fascination

The discussion also touched on why humans are so preoccupied with finding
other life.

"Why do we want life out there?" Crowe asked the audience, pointing out that
it's especially strange to want to find extraterrestrials when literature
and film often portray them as destroying our world and society.

He hypothesized that people would like to make contact with intelligent
extraterrestrials in the hopes that "they could help us not screw it up,"
and teach humans everything we don't understand.

Shostak said in an interview after the discussion that he became enamored
with the idea of other worlds when he was 8 years old.

"The idea that there were other worlds out there - it was a very romantic
idea," he said. "How many people (in their job) get to address a question
that everyone wants to know the answer to and have (wanted to know) for
thousands of years?"

In response to a question from the audience, Shostak explained, however,
that becoming aware of intelligent life elsewhere, such as hearing an alien
radio transmission, would be little more than a "big news story" for the
general population.

It's "one of those interesting things to know, like that the universe didn't
always exist," he said, but not much more.

Sakimoto disagreed, saying that it "colors everything" and changes a
person's view of the world to think of it as "teeming with life" or not.

Shostak also gave his opinion on the idea that extraterrestrials are among
us on Earth today.

Shostak said that "there is very little evidence for it," though especially
when it comes to the cases of Roswell and Area 51, there is plenty of
evidence for other activities there.

In an interview later, Shostak said he receives phone calls and e-mails from
people with UFO and alien sightings all the time.

"A message just the other day was from a woman who said she was an alien,"
he said.

Shostak doesn't mind taking these calls and believes that these people have
really seen something they believe is otherworldly, but has yet to hear or
see something that would make him agree.

"People feel empowered to 'know' something the experts won't address," he
said during the discussion.

Near the end of the discussion, Sakimoto asked Shostak for a clear answer.

"What odds would you bet that there is life out there?" Sakimoto asked.

"Quite a bit," Shostak answered, "less on intelligent life. And you?"

"Fifty-fifty," he responded. "I just don't know."

After the discussion, Shostak signed copies of his new book, "Confessions of
an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence."

You can listen to Seth Shostak on "Are We Alone?" on WVPE-FM (88.1) at 7
a.m. Sundays.

Staff writer Marlys Weaver
mweaver at sbtinfo.com
Received on Thu 10 Sep 2009 11:16:11 AM PDT