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Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars
- SwellJoe 18y agoIs anyone else bothered by the use of "confirm" and "may" in the same sentence? If it's confirmed, it is, not may be, right?
- LPTS 18y agoNot at all. If I am trying to reverse engineer a bread recipe, and find CO2, I will have confirmed yeast may have been used. It's logically equivalent to "Scientists confirmed yeast could not be ruled out." That happens all the time. There is absolutely nothing to be bothered by. Running an experiment and getting a maybe is important and valid scientific information.
- motoko 18y agoPersonally, yes. But this is standard scientific nomenclature.
- Mystalic 18y agoOff topic, but this story was added a day ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216861 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216861 Usually HN filters out repeats, but not this time. Very strange and interesting.
- FiReaNG3L 18y agoYup, but on a different site; it's a press release. I find funny that in my submission people were complaining that I removed the 'may' part of the title; in this one, people are complaining of the opposite ;)
- louislouis 18y agoWe are aliens?