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Martian Microbe Fossils, Not So Debunked Anymore
rubycodez writes "Three meteorites, including one that has been in a British museum for over a century, are going to be put under the electron microscope and ion microprobe by NASA. We're 'very, very close to proving there is or has been life [on Mars],' said David McKay, chief of astrobiology at Johnson Space Center."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=proof-of-martians-to-come-this-year-2010-01
A meteor with enough energy impacts Mars and sends material flying with enough velocity to escape Mars gravitation.
"Give me six lines of C++ code written by the most competent programmer, and I will find enough in there to hang him."
near complete annihilation of Drake's equation
Whoa, there! Drake's equation has quite a few terms in it and only two of those terms are subject to reevaluation: the average number of planets per star that are suitable for life, and the fraction of planets which are suitable for life that actually have life. The other numbers, speculative as they are, should remain unchanged by the discovery of microbial life on Mars.
Disclaimer: I am a planetary scientist but do not work directly on the martian meteorites.
1) We know that the rocks are from Mars because they all have consistent isotope ratios between the various meteorites that are inconsistent with those isotope ratios on Earth but consistent with isotopic ratios on Mars
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Neutron_activation_analysis
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6T-41WBDHD-8&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F2000&_alid=445411040&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=5823&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000053194&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1495569&md5=1c1b0d04dba7f06365b072655bef68b3 (May need a subscription)
2) The age(s) of the possible fossils are greater than the time the meteorites have been on Earth. Again, this can be calculated using various isotope ratios. In essence, these things formed while the rocks were still on Mars.
3) I agree with your discomfort with the word "prove." Most scientific study is based on the Popper philosophy of disproving something rather than proving its opposite.
A) The new instrumentation and techniques being used on these meteorites are greatly advancing our understanding of them. The press announcement that AH84001 might have evidence of life was premature (what we call "science by press release"), but the publications by the team were certainly good and valid work, whether they are falsified or not...
B) The scientific word "prove" is more about the lack of any valid competing hypotheses. If you can't come up with a reasonable alternative explanation for the data, you have to accept the presented explanation.
Theistic Evolutionists(Catholics tend to this one) will not have any epiphanies
You're right, it has been addressed by the Vatican. Catholics believe aliens could exist. No epiphanies required.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7399661.stm
we already have the means to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet if the wrong kind of fight breaks out.
unless the actual goal is to kill everyone and everyone is in on the plan and cooperates, we don't have the means to kill everyone. Things like the "peace activist" line about having enough "bombs" to "destroy the earth (x) times over" are hyperbole. The planet is extremely large, and we are extremely small in comparison. Humans are ridiculously adaptable. There are too many of us spread out over too large an area for us to do much beyond temporarily stall technological advancement, much less throw us into the stone age or oblivion.
The problem isn't technological retardation, but a nuclear winter.