Posted on 02/20/2006 5:28:16 PM PST by KevinDavis
Conspiracy theorists will readily tell you that the U.S. military is hiding alien corpses in a secret facility in the Nevada desert. But paleontologist and University of Washington geology professor Peter Ward thinks that scientists should be looking for a different type of alien life on earth: alien microbes. Ward is the author of several popular books about astrobiology, including the controversial Rare Earth, co-authored with Donald Brownlee. In his latest book, Life as We Do Not Know It, Ward addresses an issue often avoided by astrobiologists. Although all known life on Earth has a similar DNA-based chemistry, life found on other worlds may not. In chapter 6 of Life as We Do Not Know It, reprinted below, Ward takes this argument one step further. There may, he says, be unfamiliar life forms on Earth, as well. And scientists would be wise to search for them.
(Excerpt) Read more at astrobio.net ...
"Today there are approximately 1500 aliens living and working in Manhattan and most of them are decent enough, they're just trying to make a living."
"Cab drivers?"
"Not as many as you'd think."
This has already been done, and no one that I have ever seen has claimed them to be extraterrestrials.
What makes anyone think they are smart enough to keep something like this secret?
Yeah, Souter for one.
They dislike the idea that life came from somewhere else more than they dislike the story in Genesis (which, BTW, has life coming from somewhere else).
These guys want everything to have happened just on Earth, and nowhere else, and in a "just-so" pattern that demonstrates that life is either an accident, or a foregone conclusion resulting from the application of currently understood Natural Laws.
The gentleman who went out and found another few million "genes" didn't find them in bacteria alone ~ he's counting the different viruses he found. The oceans are filled with vast numbers of different viruses ~ they're doggoned near immortal you know. He thinks we ought to construct an artificial lifeform (a cellular form) into which we could start plugging the genes he's found to see what they do (or, what they were "designed" to do since many of them could be the products of industrial and other processes on billions of worlds long gone elsewhere in the Universe).
You might want to take a look at the February Discover magazine. Has a great article, and some throught provoking speculation on the MIMIVIRUS, which has more genes than many bacteria. This critter may be the "mother of us all" for all anyone knows, but it sure is complex ~ and big ~ it's the biggest virus ever found.
That's right, I've heard of those critters. Interesting. My question just kind of popped into my noggin.
I wish. I am a firm believer that ANYONE that posts her pic on a thread for ANY REASON should have an automatic 2 hour suspension for the first offense with penalties increasing from there.
Actually, I will have to retract this, because even this won't work. There is a theory called Convergent Evolution:
convergent evolution: The evolution of species from different taxonomic groups toward a similar form; the development of similar characteristics by taxonomically different organisms.
Convergent evolution would predict that microbes on different planets which never had contact could still evolve similarly given similar environments. We could not look at two populations of the same thing on two different planets and claim that one population came from the other.
I went to Area 51 this past weekend to take pictures of the signs and had lunch at the Lil' Ale-Inn in Rachel, NV.
I haven't read the article yet, but if there are/were other life forms out there, it makes sense to me, thinking about it right now, that signs of such life could show up on our planet as microbes or something similar, catching a ride on an asteroid (sp?).
I'll go read your link now.
"We don't have to show you no steenking badges!"
Who cares about alien corpses. But you are right about one thing. There are no dead aliens in Nevada.
41 posted on 02/20/2006 6:06:30 PM PST by RichInOC ("...Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.")
Are you for real! LOL! Love your tagline as well. LOLOL!
Don't ask to be added to or dropped from this list. Just don't.
That's so funny!!!
Washington, DC is crawling with them.
Don't laugh either.
What if I did ask to be added to the Aliens Among Us Ping List??
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