New claim of NASA scientist finding fossils of alien life inside meteorites

[Danderman]

My personal opinion is that these filaments are probably nothing to do with life, but they may have some intrinsic scientific value in themselves. This kind of reminds me of the science community reaction to Cold Fusion: "This is NOT actually fusion, its some chemical reaction that we don't really understand, so let's ignore it".

[Alpha_Centauri]

I guess Dr. Rosie Redfield is the go-to scientist to debunk these kinds of claims:

http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2011/03/is-this-claim-of-bacteria-in-meteorite.html

"Executive Summary: Move along folks, there's nothing to see here."

Now that's a bit better, although it's still clear on some things like the PAH's that she did not read the article thoroughly...It's somewhat depressing when experts can't tackle bad science properly.

[spacermase]

Speaking as someone in the astrobiology community, Hoover has actually been pushing this idea for a couple of years now.  As a result, he's become something of a fringe figure (it doesn't help that he's convinced there's some sort of conspiracy to cover up his work).

[ChrisGebhardt]

HA! So a NASA scientist finds "proof" of alien life and NASA doesn't want to be the one to break the news (you know, like they did for the Arsenic-based lifeform a few months ago).

I think not.

[punder]

It's interesting that things have come to this point:  a NASA scientist announces he's found ET, and nobody gives a flip.

[Danderman]

It's interesting that things have come to this point:  a NASA scientist announces he's found ET, and nobody gives a flip.

a) its not a NASA scientist

and

b) he didn't find ET.

Other than that, its  good question.

[Warren Platts]

a) its not a NASA scientist

Did he get fired or something??

From the original article:

Aliens exist, and we have proof.

 That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites.

[rdale]

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/extreme_chat_prt.htm

[madscientist197]

I guess Dr. Rosie Redfield is the go-to scientist to debunk these kinds of claims:

http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2011/03/is-this-claim-of-bacteria-in-meteorite.html

Nice little anonymous comment at the bottom:

Unlike the Arsenic discovery, there is very little controversy about this paper, because in this case nobody believes the work. The arsenic discovery is controversial because quite a few think the authors are onto something, whereas others are very critical of the work.

[MCC Tech]

The timing of this announcement is ironic, since I just recently read Dan Brown's "Deception Point" which also deals with an announcement of extraterrestrial life found on a meteorite.

[hop]

If anyone has lingering doubts as to whether JOC is a crackpot journal, the "official statement" found on their front page should clear things up: http://journalofcosmology.com/

Have the Terrorist Won? Only a few crackpots and charlatans have denounced the Hoover study. NASA's chief scientist was charged with unprofessional conduct for lying publicly about the Journal of Cosmology and the Hoover paper.

Charged ? Really ? Where ? ^{[citation needed]}

Tremendous efforts have been made to shout down the truth, and the same crackpots, self-promoters, liars, and failures, are quoted repeatedly in the media.

"Tremendous effort" apparently means some blog posts by a handful of working scientists and some statements to media NASA officials who are asked for comment.

In 1584, Giordano Bruno published "Of Infinity, the Universe, and the World" and wrote: "There are innumerable suns and an infinite number of planets which circle around their suns as our seven planets circle around our Sun." However, according to Bruno, we are unable to see these planets and suns "because of their great distance or small mass." On February 19, 1600 Bruno was burned at the stake by the Inquisition for publishing these claims.

The Bruno gambit is a nice change from the Galileo gambit. Well played.

Following the publication of Richard Hoover's paper, what ensued could be likened to a rein of terror, a witch hunt, an inquisition designed to crush all discussion of his findings. There were even calls to "hang" Richard Hoover. Three hundred years ago, they would have burned us all at the stake.

Yes, reasoned criticism of methodology and conclusions in blog posts is definitely comparable to being burned at the stake. If the Inquisition had blogs, they wouldn't have bothered with all that other stuff.

It took courage to publish the Hoover discoveries. The Journal of Cosmology will continue to publish great theories and new discoveries.

The terrorists and the lunatic fringe have lost.

^{[citation needed]}

edit to add:
A very nice write up from someone who had a paper published in this "journal" http://leilabattison.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/microbes-on-a-moonbeam-disentangling-the-meteorite-microbe-claims/