Microbiologist claims he has 95% certain proof of alien life

AutumnWitch657
What exactly is the meaning of terrestrial. Pertaining to land, not aquatic, not aerial.
Extraterrestrial is outside or originating outside the earth . If it's in the air it's aerial and if it's in our air it's from earth...

Yeah, but he found diatoms and algae spores. Those could have originated on the Earth's surface (or in the ocean) and been sent up into the atmosphere. There are mechanisms on earth for doing so (such as a volcanic eruption), but Wainwright and Wickramasinghe claim that the last volcanic eruption capable of doing that was three years prior.

So, They claim that since we don't know of the specific mechanism for how these diatoms and spores got there, then that means they must be from space.

However, I think these scientists may be guilty of not doing their due diligence in proving that diatoms and spores thrust into the atmosphere by a volcano three years prior cannot still be held aloft somehow. It is also possible that science does not know every mechanism that diatoms and algae could get to 27 km; maybe there is some yet unknown mechanism in nature that would cause this.

Also, I'd like to know what they did to prevent contamination of their equipment as the balloon went up through the atmosphere and back down again.

All I'm saying is that it is premature for them to claim "we don't know how these diatoms and algae spores could have been that high, so the only explanation is that it is extraterrestrial". There are certainly other explanations that these scientists should explore in detail before claiming ET is the "only" explanation.

JadeStar

Ross 54
Dr. Milton Wainwright of Sheffield University in the U.K.

One would be wise to stop reading right there.

He and his team have a history of making unverified claims.
Scientists claim to have found evidence of ALIEN LIFE


Not the most objective of sources with regards to the topic of panspermia. I suggest you take a closer look at his controversial background and somewhat shoddy contributions to the supposedly scientific "Journal of Cosmology", of which he is the "Astrobiology editor". His home University of Cardiff saw fit to defund his department and dismiss him from his post.

edit on 9-12-2013 by JadeStar because: (no reason given)

Surely a scientific claim must stand or fall on the basis of evidence and independent confirmation, and not
on someone's reputation, or 'background' . Dr. Wainwright himself indicated that he is not entirely certain that the samples are extraterrestrial. He also proposed to confirm or deny the ET nature of the samples by comparing the isotopic ratios of the elements in them to those from Earth.

PhoenixOD
All he has to do is sequence the DNA and see what part of the family tree these organisms are from.

Yes indeed...the final test.

Probability would suggest that these scientists know more than we. Probability would also suggest they are dead wrong, and that any life found "in atmo" is Terrestrial in nature.

It would certainly be cool to find some kind of viruses or spores or some other kind of thing that originated outside of Earth. I have no problem with the possibility.

However, I agree that they should work harder not to fall into the old trap of:
"We don't know of any other way this could have happened, therefore ALIENS!"

As for testing the DNA, would a standard DNA test work to identify significantly alien living organisms, or would the organism need to have some kind of DNA that was at least somewhat similar to our own (suggesting a possible common source)? Could the DNA be different enough not to register as life as we know it, but functional in its own way for an organism do all the things we agree living things do (eating, pooping, procreating, having a point of view, etc.)?

Quite correct! We don't know that extraterrestrial organisms would have DNA or some similarly acting molecule that our tests could confirm was due to life. Even if the samples had once had such molecules, these could have been damaged beyond recognition by their travels through space, or simply a very long passage of time.

This is presumably why Dr. Wainwright proposed isotopic testing of the elements of the samples. These should be very much more stable than bio-molecules. Isotopic ratios different from those on Earth, found inside organisms of unknown origin, would be a very good diagnostic for extraterrestrial life.

reply to post by Ross 54


Are the microbes exactly the same as other microbes commonly found on Earth?

I'd think that would be pretty conclusive evidence that they were in fact from Earth.

If they are completely unknown microbes, that's another story, but still not proof they came from space...they may just be a specific 'extremophile' microbe that lives it's life cycle in a pretty thin layer of the atmosphere and simply hasn't been discovered before now.

There has to be more to go on than there's microbes there so they must be from space!

(They could be from space, but if they are found elsewhere on Earth, they probably aren't.)