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Murchison Meteorite Still Contentious

An anonymous reader writes "The well-known 1969 meteorite that fell 60 miles north of Melbourne, Australia, remains remarkably contentious today. The 100 kilogram carbon rock : a) contains pre-biotic proteins and 12% water; b) harbors 50 amino acids not found on Earth; c) favors the tell-tale signature of biochemistry based on a dominant left-handed chirality, compared to random or racemic mixtures found in test-tube syntheses. While terrestrial contamination (even interior to the meteor) may discount this so-called 'Murchison meteor', its light isotopes of carbon and nitrogen suggest the left-handed amino acids not found elsewhere on Earth have the same ratios as the right-handed ones. This would not be the case if, say, bacteria was just making the left-handed ones after impact. Seems quite a controversy from down-under."

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  1. Re:How many times... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "How many times will science have a victory over the church before we can finally kill God for good?"

    What victory over the church? Science is good for proving that things exist, but it's not very useful for proving that things don't exist. If you're drawing the conclusion that God doesn't exist by what is or isn't on a meteorite, then you're not using science.