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Do you beleive in life on other planets?

jfuh said:
He's right, they were rocks, that's essentially what happens with living tissue, it's fossilized.

Also Fe3O4 is a clear indication of once living organism. They found a lot of this stuff.



If I recall, "Genesis", by Hazen, published just this spring, goes into some detail on the debate over the Mars rocks, and the consensus in the biology community is that the rocks prove....nothing. They're inconclusive and not sufficient evidence to prove the existence of ET life.

Now, you can argue it with him if you want, you pretend to be as much a microbiologist as anything else, so drop him a line. I merely report what is written for us dumb engineers.
 
tecoyah said:
As a Great Man once said "Extraordinary Claims, require Extraordinary Evidence.

We just dont have it.....yet.
Google for Magnetite + martian rock +
ahhh hell here's the source
Many debate this though because magnetite forms through inorganic means as well as organic means, however, it's not only the presence of magentite, but the way in which the magenetite crystals lined up within the fossil.
Though it is not absolute proof yet, however it presents a very good support of finding life in our own solar system.
 
[/url="http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/metsoc97abs.html"]The 60th Meeting of the Meteoritical Society

A Summary of Presentations Related to Martian

Meteorite ALH 84001.[/url]

McKay et al. (1996) found fields of aligned bacteria-shaped objects, and inferred that they were fossil bacteria. However, Bradley et al. (1997) suggested that the bacteria-shaped objects were magnetite crystals that had grown in alignment on the host carbonate mineral. Here, the authors show that at least one grain of magnetite is in good crystallographic alignment with its host carbonate mineral; this relationship is called epitaxy. This alignment seems unlikely if the magnetites were formed by bacteria. But the alignment is expected if, as the authors suggest, the magnetite grew at high temperature from a vapor. "The widely published images of aligned nanofossils in ALH 84001 are probably magnetite whiskers with parallel orientations resulting from epitaxial growth on carbonate substrates."

...

The claim that ALH 84001's carbonate globules contains traces of ancient martian life (McKay et al., 1996) requires that the globules formed at a temperature comfortable for life, but recent evidence suggests that some of the carbonates formed at very high temperatures (Scott et al., 1997).

...

The furor about possible traces of life in ALH 84001 has highlighted some important issues in the search for life on Mars. First, proof of biological activity must be based on many lines of evidence ("multiple biomarkers"). Second, experimental controls are crucial, as non-biological chemicals and structures can easily be misinterpreted as biological. And third, the mineral and chemical thermometers now available cannot distinguish materials formed at biologically reasonable temperatures (< ~ 120°C) from materials formed at higher temperatures unsuitable for life. New thermometric schemes need to be developed.

Y'all can read the abstracts if you want. Some people gots themselves religion about Mars rocks being infested with bacteria, I see. Then again, not all of us have the luxury of an open mind or an objective viewpoint.
 
I read on a science news site saying there is no longer public acces to the martian rocks. I still smeeeeeel a cover up. :rofl

But, seriously it is possible that the rocks could have had fossils on them. Imagine if we found out aliens really existed. It would be cool, but the public shock could be huge.
 
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