[meteorite-list] Private involvement helping science

From: Steve Dunklee <steve.dunklee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:47:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <841731.92418.qm_at_web113915.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

Nice post Mike! Governments and religious leaders all over history have slowed down tru science. The earth was once the center of the universe. And a patent clerk not funded by any government? We all know the rest of that story. It takes a lot of years for the "wacko" Theorys to finally be accepted and proven. Radionucleotides and exobacteria are good examples. Dating by lead lead ratios is acepted as fact by the flat earthers. And evidence of viruses and bacteria in meteorites is considered heresy. With radio telescopes and the hubble reaching out 300billion years into the past isnt it a little nieve to give dating based on radiation? A good analogy would be a public restroom with 3 stalls. The nearest stall would see the most use and the most flushes. If you put a counter on each stall and recorded how many flushes each toilet had could you say the farthest stall was younger because it had less flushes? Its the same thing with using half lives to
 calculate ages. It gives us usefull info but? Cheers Steve

On Wed Aug 25th, 2010 11:50 AM EDT Galactic Stone & Ironworks wrote:

>Hi List,
>
>I don't want to re-open the debate between science and laymen over the
>involvement of private meteorite hunters. But I think something
>should be pointed out in regards to the recent development about the
>age of the solar system (story linked below). This story is a perfect
>example of how private involvement can benefit meteoritics and science
>as a whole. This NWA meteorite has yielded some potentially-valuable
>data, and the stone was made available by private nomad hunters and
>private collector/dealers. Without private involvement, this
>meteorite would still be laying undiscovered in the desert and
>possibly buried forever by the marching dunes, or left to suffer the
>fate of terrestrialization as a part of desert pavement. It's a fun
>and positive thing that laymen can become involved in science in an
>indirect way that produces real results. And this is also another
>example of how find coordinates for some meteorites is secondary to
>more important secrets the specimens hold. In this particular case,
>the find coordinates are not fundamental to the discovery.
>
>http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=meteorite-nugget-pushes-back-age-of-2010-08-23
>
>Best regards,
>
>MikeG
>
>
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------
>Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
>http://www.galactic-stone.com
>http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
>------------------------------------------------------------
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Received on Wed 25 Aug 2010 12:47:28 PM PDT