[meteorite-list] New evidence for microbial fossils in Martian meteorite

From: JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 11:32:05 -0400
Message-ID: <6EB9ABF93EFF46AFA9D0256571373F7E_at_ET>

Melanie:

I think they're just recycling their old claims to try and get more taxpayer
funding for their project. I'm still waiting to hear their "new" evidence.
It's the same as their old evidence, which is weak. McKay and his crew
remind me of Michael Mann and his CRU with their AGW agenda. (Incidently,
NASA is involved in Climategate with their questionable Goddard Institute
for Space Studies data.)

These people are seriously looking for microbial fossils in igneous rock?
Has a fossil of any kind ever been found in an igneous rock? Are life forms
ever preserved in magma, granite or obsidian? This is laughable at the
least.

So they found some magnetite crystals. They say 75% were naturally formed
by a shock mechanism, while 25% were so perfect, they had to be biogenic.
What are the chances of this actually happening? Wouldn't it all be natural
or all biogenic?

And get this: the magnetite is exactly the same as that produced by
magnetotactic bacteria on Earth! So what are the chances of this happening?
2 identical life forms on two different planets. These things live in the
ocean, could they survive an interplanetary journey? Why are these magnetite
chain fossils not found in sedimentary Earth rocks, but yet they appear in
igneous Mars rocks? Since these are aquatic creatures, it seems highly
unlikely they would turn up in igneous rock.

Their whole argument rests of the morphology of a few magnetite nano
crystals, which they claim they can now see better with higher resolution
microscopes. I think this is very weak evidence, and I remain unconvinced.
I think desktop cold fusion is more likely.

Phil Whitmer
Received on Wed 05 May 2010 11:32:05 AM PDT