[meteorite-list] The search for aliens should start on Earth not outer space, says scientist

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:50:14 -0600
Message-ID: <6B14A57590A14DAF94DE49E36091B05F_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Dear Count,

    First, one should always be cautious about
UK tabloid "news" and the ways in which they
present things.

    Secondly, before saying somebody is
"purported to be a physicist," you ought to
check him out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Davies

    Honestly, I disagree with a lot of Davies
ideas on a host of technical things but he has
a point here.

    The Earth has the survivors of microbes
that thrived and were wide-spread when the
Earth was very different from what it is now.
We have microbes who love boiling water, who
eat sulfur, who think oxygen is poison, who
will never be happy until there's hydrogen
sulfide everywhere and the oceans are purple.

    These ancient forms have been pushed
back into the corners of our present environment,
reduced in number but hanging on by the skin
of their teeth.

    IF an truly alien microbe or a non-DNA
lifeform ever made it to Earth and didn't die
instantly, it might well find refuge in an even
deeper pocket of out-of-the-way. It could just sit
there for billions of years and gripe about this
lousy planet.

    I think Davies' real point is that we DON'T
LOOK to see if there is anything (anybody?)
there. If you never look, you never find, just
like with meteorites.


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <countdeiro at earthlink.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 3:42 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] The search for aliens should start on Earth
not outer space, says scientist


> Hello List,
>
> Here's a fellow who must stay so far back in his laboratory at AU that
> they mail him daylight.
> Professor Paul Davies, purported to be a physicist, has "alien life"
> sitting in the meteorite collection down the hall from him...so to
> speak..and he makes this idiotic pronouncement. All he accomplished
> was to show his ignorance of the current science and provide fodder
> for the argument against tenure.
>
> I thought when I read the caption on this release that it was going to
> show some recognition of the fact that "alien life " has already been
> discovered in martian meteorites...albeit dead and fossilized...and
> that most of his colleagues agree that meteorites brought "life" to
> this planet.
>
> If Davies wants to discover "alien life"...he should look in a mirror.
>
> Here's the link.
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7068765/The-search-for-aliens-should-start-on-Earth-not-outer-space-says-scientist.html
>
> On to Tucson,
>
> Count Deiro
> IMCA 3536
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Received on Mon 25 Jan 2010 08:50:14 PM PST