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Tiny Worms Survive Shuttle Crash
John H. Doe writes "According to CNet, tiny worms kept in special aluminum canisters aboard the space shuttle Columbia (which broke apart in the atmosphere back in Feb. 1, 2003) survived their fall to earth. The small (about 1mm long) soil roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans was found alive in four or five of the recovered canisters, after an impact 2,295 times the force of Earth's gravity."
now your saying we're descendent from a bunch of half-inch alien worms? scuttlemonkey i hate you
So that's how the aliens in 'War of the Worlds' managed their space flight!
Wake me when they invent something useful from these things.
It shows directly that even complex small creatures originating on one planet could survive landing on another without the protection of a spacecraft."
Do I even need to say why that is specious? Um, OK: They were in canisters and they rode in a shuttle for part of re-entry.
I'm not saying panspermia's infeasible, but this event is not particularly compelling, given the circumstances.
mirror http://www.thebesttrek.net/forum/index.php?topic=3 48.0
http://www.thebesttrek.net/forum/index.php - visit my FORUM
Yeah, the story's been run before.
0 1/1134217&mode=thread&tid=134&tid=160
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/
I hate to spoil the party, but this was news around April, 2003. This isn't really a source, but if you think about it, it's about as infallible as you can get. Behold, a Google Cache of a weblog I wrote at that time, the server of which doesn't really exist anymore. It was back in the time of Chimera before it became Camino, back when RSS was cool. But of course don't take my word, I'm sure someone else can furnish a true news source to back this up...
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
*Whew!* What a relief!
That mission wasn't such a disaster afterall!
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
It's not like worms have any bones to break, or complex brain structures that would suffer life-threatening subdural hematomas upon impact.
Besides, the worms were packed in loose soil offering cushioning upon impact, and have very low oxygen requirements compared to humans.
Is it to much to ask of our researchers that they manage to count to at least 5?
When they found the canisters did they count like a child? What comes first? One. And then? Two. And then? Three. And then? Four or five, I'm not sure.
...was found alive in four or five of the recovered canisters...
So which was it, hmm? Four or five?
Who haxor3d slashdot article submissions today?
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
Are a full 50% of the articles in the submission queue from trolls hoping to trick the editors into posting dupes or misleading article summaries? Or do the editors simply select those articles, for reasons that aren't clear to the rest of us?
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I welcome our new impact-resistant overlord roundworms!
Their small size probably saved, given that, due to their miniscule surface area, the decceleration would be applied fairly uniformly to the entire creature.
Last time I played Worms World party my worms died after falling about 3 inches! You're telling me these worms survived a fall from space? Now thats a cheat code.
Get your gear to commemorate this great tragedy here https://secure.team17.com/
There is always a chance that there was firm evidence that there were live worms in four of the containers and strong evidence that there were live worms in the fifth container that died due to other causes after the landing. That would make the 'four or five' statement accurate.
Then there is a chance that the reporter is getting the information second hand and the person being interviewed doesn't know the full details of the evidence. (i.e. You know that there were several canisters of worms surviving and you thought the count was about four or five, you would quote the range.)
According to a more detailed article, there were six canisters with worms in them and five were recovered.
I do find it interesting that the worms were 'four or five generations' removed from the originals. This could be where the confusion comes from.
It would, unfortunately, be a typical mistake made by a reporter. I've seen far too many instances where the facts get mangled by someone who doesn't quite understand what they are talking about when they translate it for the masses.
Terminal velocity also "has to do with" drag. And drag is a function of the ambient air pressure. Air pressure falls off with increasing altitude. So Terminal Velocity should decrease with decreasing altitude.