6-10-06 Panspermia
The theory behind panspermia is that life possibly began on Earth when cosmic dust, comet dust, or meteors fell on Earth carrying microbes or some cellular level of life that, once it hit the Earth, was somehow able to survive and evolve into what we see all around us today. The theory also suggests that this wouldn't be just a one time event, conveniently timed a few billion years ago, but rather an ongoing series of events that, quite possibly, might even show up in some event that we would either see happen or gain hard evidence of right afterwards.
As with any scientific theory, the ability to predict future discovery is one of the hallmarks of a theory that will tend to persist as being valid. In the case of the theory of panspermia, it may have predicted what happened in the summer of 2001.
In the Kerala state of India during that summer, sporadic rain showers fell in a red colored rain. This "red rain" was plentiful enough for many samples to have been taken, and now, five years later, a scientist in India has published some of his conclusions on the analysis of this stuff. Here's a couple of articles on it...
Popscience
Guardian
The bottom line on his conclusions which make it newsworthy is his claim that the microscopic particles that were responsible for the "red rain" appear to be cell-like structures that are capable of being able to reproduce. More notable is his claim that they appear not to contain any DNA.
Well... that sure is creepy! Mother Earth may have been fed another in some long series of alien life form injections a mere five years ago! But, as you will find if you read those articles, we will have to wait until later this year before more studies are done to confirm that they are, indeed, life forms and (if they are) that they contain no DNA.
I do find it incredibly obtuse, however, to be fed this story from the angle that five years has gone by so far without such testing having reached a definitive conclusion. The whole thing really stinks, on that simple fact alone.
What stinks is the usual resistance to accepting scientific evidence (or even studying the evidence, for that matter) before making the kind of condemnations that serve only to make the evidence "go away" so that it won't conflict with prevailing dogma.
For instance, there's a paragraph in the article from the second link (above) which I'll just quote...
"Not everyone is convinced by the idea, of course. Indeed most researchers think it is highly dubious. One scientist who posted a message on Louis's website described it as 'bullshit'."
Yes, you really have to pay homage to these so-called "scientists" who will so readily dismiss hard evidence but never actually look at it first-hand, especially ones who will be so vehement in their authoritarian refutations. None of the debunkers looked at the evidence before dismissing it out of hand as "dubious". It's absolutely amazing that anyone could refer to them as "scientists" or "researchers".
This, of course, is what we refer to in this society as "peer review". But it really isn't, since the "review process" isn't actually done. What's done instead is akin to the middle ages process of suggesting something that goes against the dogma of the ruling elite, and then getting burned at the stake for heresy.
This is why five years has transpired and we still have no slightest willingness on the part of the "ruling elite" to even look at the evidence, never mind study it for themselves and come to a conclusion. That kind of behavior isn't science, it's religious fundamentalism.
Oh well... I think I'll go and watch the movie, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" now.
As with any scientific theory, the ability to predict future discovery is one of the hallmarks of a theory that will tend to persist as being valid. In the case of the theory of panspermia, it may have predicted what happened in the summer of 2001.
In the Kerala state of India during that summer, sporadic rain showers fell in a red colored rain. This "red rain" was plentiful enough for many samples to have been taken, and now, five years later, a scientist in India has published some of his conclusions on the analysis of this stuff. Here's a couple of articles on it...
Popscience
Guardian
The bottom line on his conclusions which make it newsworthy is his claim that the microscopic particles that were responsible for the "red rain" appear to be cell-like structures that are capable of being able to reproduce. More notable is his claim that they appear not to contain any DNA.
Well... that sure is creepy! Mother Earth may have been fed another in some long series of alien life form injections a mere five years ago! But, as you will find if you read those articles, we will have to wait until later this year before more studies are done to confirm that they are, indeed, life forms and (if they are) that they contain no DNA.
I do find it incredibly obtuse, however, to be fed this story from the angle that five years has gone by so far without such testing having reached a definitive conclusion. The whole thing really stinks, on that simple fact alone.
What stinks is the usual resistance to accepting scientific evidence (or even studying the evidence, for that matter) before making the kind of condemnations that serve only to make the evidence "go away" so that it won't conflict with prevailing dogma.
For instance, there's a paragraph in the article from the second link (above) which I'll just quote...
"Not everyone is convinced by the idea, of course. Indeed most researchers think it is highly dubious. One scientist who posted a message on Louis's website described it as 'bullshit'."
Yes, you really have to pay homage to these so-called "scientists" who will so readily dismiss hard evidence but never actually look at it first-hand, especially ones who will be so vehement in their authoritarian refutations. None of the debunkers looked at the evidence before dismissing it out of hand as "dubious". It's absolutely amazing that anyone could refer to them as "scientists" or "researchers".
This, of course, is what we refer to in this society as "peer review". But it really isn't, since the "review process" isn't actually done. What's done instead is akin to the middle ages process of suggesting something that goes against the dogma of the ruling elite, and then getting burned at the stake for heresy.
This is why five years has transpired and we still have no slightest willingness on the part of the "ruling elite" to even look at the evidence, never mind study it for themselves and come to a conclusion. That kind of behavior isn't science, it's religious fundamentalism.
Oh well... I think I'll go and watch the movie, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" now.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 6:47 PM
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