5 ms·

NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

50 points by pelf 16y ago

nolite 16y ago
The fact that this came through FoxNews kills all credibility for me
- personalcompute 16y ago
  Edit: As previously posted on hacker news (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2291558 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2291558), this has a lot of problems.
  - sharkbot 16y ago
    From Phil Plait's blog (http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/has-life-been-found-in-a-meteorite/ http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/h...), the journal is closing, albeit after a conspiracy-soaked rant: http://daviddobbs.posterous.com/journal-of-cosmology-going-out-with-big-bang http://daviddobbs.posterous.com/journal-of-cosmology-going-o... Long story short: take this paper with a pretty large grain of salt.
    - thret 16y ago
      TBH I'm more interested in the social impact evidence of alien life would have, rather than the scientific one. Evidence of panspermia early in Earth's history would be interesting, but I am not sure it would actually teach us much. OTOH there would be significant implications for some major religions.
      - ars 16y ago
        Religions would only be impacted by intelligent life. Bacteria and even higher animals would not do anything.
        ugh 16y ago
        Pfff. Religions are flexible. They will cope with everything you throw at them. They must be, their lifetime is measured in centuries.
- alanh 16y ago
  Not sure why people downvote posts like the parent. It’s a legitimate concern, given Fox’s well-documented, even engineered and policy-based, science-negative and ratings-over-truth slant. Would the comment be downvoted if it said “The Sun” instead of Fox News? Fox is hardly a tabloid but it’s certainly not Nature.
  - mquander 16y ago
    I downvoted it because coming through Fox News or The Sun has no impact on its credibility, since Fox News is not the primary source. Fox News is just parroting and simplifying something scientific-sounding, like they would do for any similar scientific-sounding thing. The findings do not seem particularly credible, but it has nothing to do with Fox.
    - nolite 16y ago
      "Fox News is just parroting and simplifying something scientific-sounding, like they would do for any similar scientific-sounding thing." umm.. this is EXACTLY my point
      - mquander 16y ago
        Coming from Fox News certainly doesn't make it much more credible. But I don't think it makes it less credible, either. You should figure out whether it's credible based on other evidence. If you think that coming from Fox News "kills all credibility" of something then you are going to disbelieve many true things.
        guns 16y ago
        WRT to alien life, FOX has an established reputation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_autopsy#Alien_Autopsy:_Fact_or_Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_autopsy#Alien_Autopsy:_Fa... I can still remember my father sitting me down and explaining to me how this was going to change _everything_ about our understanding of the universe. While my father should have exercised more incredulity, it was pretty irresponsible of FOX to pump the damn program for as much attention as possible.
- baddox 16y ago
  To my memory, all of Fox News' bogus stuff is directly related to one thing: partisanship. I can't think of any lie or mistake they've published that would make me doubt the legitimacy of this article.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - bandushrew 16y ago
    They lie, or publish unverified pap, whenever it suits their agenda. I have no specific knowledge regarding whether, or how, this news article might fit their agenda, Clearly in this situation it is appropriate to assume that they are lying, or at the very least publishing unverified pap, and to wait for evidence that may indicate they are not.
- tel 16y ago
  The journal's website[1] doesn't exactly inspire confidence either. It drops a lot of names and then takes submission fees using PayPal. [1] http://journalofcosmology.com/About.html http://journalofcosmology.com/About.html
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
yuvadam 16y ago
"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke
DuncanIdaho 16y ago
If I got a dime for every time NASA scientist has found alien life...
samic 16y ago
It's not just FoxNews: http://www.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&topic=t&ncl=dOpY3yKJOUTD-oMUrGOKsrcYmp0rM http://www.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&topic=t&...

50 points by pelf 16y ago

nolite 16y ago

The fact that this came through FoxNews kills all credibility for me

personalcompute 16y ago
Edit: As previously posted on hacker news (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2291558 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2291558), this has a lot of problems.
- sharkbot 16y ago
  From Phil Plait's blog (http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/has-life-been-found-in-a-meteorite/ http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/h...), the journal is closing, albeit after a conspiracy-soaked rant: http://daviddobbs.posterous.com/journal-of-cosmology-going-out-with-big-bang http://daviddobbs.posterous.com/journal-of-cosmology-going-o... Long story short: take this paper with a pretty large grain of salt.
  - thret 16y ago
    TBH I'm more interested in the social impact evidence of alien life would have, rather than the scientific one. Evidence of panspermia early in Earth's history would be interesting, but I am not sure it would actually teach us much. OTOH there would be significant implications for some major religions.
    - ars 16y ago
      Religions would only be impacted by intelligent life. Bacteria and even higher animals would not do anything.
      - ugh 16y ago
        Pfff. Religions are flexible. They will cope with everything you throw at them. They must be, their lifetime is measured in centuries.
alanh 16y ago
Not sure why people downvote posts like the parent. It’s a legitimate concern, given Fox’s well-documented, even engineered and policy-based, science-negative and ratings-over-truth slant. Would the comment be downvoted if it said “The Sun” instead of Fox News? Fox is hardly a tabloid but it’s certainly not Nature.
- mquander 16y ago
  I downvoted it because coming through Fox News or The Sun has no impact on its credibility, since Fox News is not the primary source. Fox News is just parroting and simplifying something scientific-sounding, like they would do for any similar scientific-sounding thing. The findings do not seem particularly credible, but it has nothing to do with Fox.
  - nolite 16y ago
    "Fox News is just parroting and simplifying something scientific-sounding, like they would do for any similar scientific-sounding thing." umm.. this is EXACTLY my point
    - mquander 16y ago
      Coming from Fox News certainly doesn't make it much more credible. But I don't think it makes it less credible, either. You should figure out whether it's credible based on other evidence. If you think that coming from Fox News "kills all credibility" of something then you are going to disbelieve many true things.
      - guns 16y ago
        WRT to alien life, FOX has an established reputation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_autopsy#Alien_Autopsy:_Fact_or_Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_autopsy#Alien_Autopsy:_Fa... I can still remember my father sitting me down and explaining to me how this was going to change _everything_ about our understanding of the universe. While my father should have exercised more incredulity, it was pretty irresponsible of FOX to pump the damn program for as much attention as possible.
baddox 16y ago
To my memory, all of Fox News' bogus stuff is directly related to one thing: partisanship. I can't think of any lie or mistake they've published that would make me doubt the legitimacy of this article.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- bandushrew 16y ago
  They lie, or publish unverified pap, whenever it suits their agenda. I have no specific knowledge regarding whether, or how, this news article might fit their agenda, Clearly in this situation it is appropriate to assume that they are lying, or at the very least publishing unverified pap, and to wait for evidence that may indicate they are not.
tel 16y ago
The journal's website[1] doesn't exactly inspire confidence either. It drops a lot of names and then takes submission fees using PayPal. [1] http://journalofcosmology.com/About.html http://journalofcosmology.com/About.html

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

yuvadam 16y ago

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke

DuncanIdaho 16y ago

If I got a dime for every time NASA scientist has found alien life...

samic 16y ago

It's not just FoxNews: http://www.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&topic=t&ncl=dOpY3yKJOUTD-oMUrGOKsrcYmp0rM http://www.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&topic=t&...