Late last week, a news story was going around that alien life was found in our atmosphere. Unfortunately, the paper was incredibly flawed.
After launching a balloon up into the atmosphere, a portion of a diatom was discovered. The author concluded that it had to have come from somewhere else in the cosmos and serves as definitive proof of aliens. Um, no.
Here’s a quick rundown of the flaws in the paper:
-In the paper, the authors never confirm that it had been positively identified by diatom expert. Instead, they “assume” that one would be able to confirm its identity.
-The diatom was not connected to a meteorite that would have allowed it to travel through space.
-Diatoms are abundant on Earth, but the authors are quick to dismiss possibilities that it could have remained suspended due to a dynamic atmosphere. Just because you don’t know how something got there does not mean it was aliens.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has more on why this story is bad science: http://slate.me/1aZkCgw
Read the original paper here: http://bit.ly/1bCf4LT
After launching a balloon up into the atmosphere, a portion of a diatom was discovered. The author concluded that it had to have come from somewhere else in the cosmos and serves as definitive proof of aliens. Um, no.
Here’s a quick rundown of the flaws in the paper:
-In the paper, the authors never confirm that it had been positively identified by diatom expert. Instead, they “assume” that one would be able to confirm its identity.
-The diatom was not connected to a meteorite that would have allowed it to travel through space.
-Diatoms are abundant on Earth, but the authors are quick to dismiss possibilities that it could have remained suspended due to a dynamic atmosphere. Just because you don’t know how something got there does not mean it was aliens.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has more on why this story is bad science: http://slate.me/1aZkCgw
Read the original paper here: http://bit.ly/1bCf4LT
No comments:
Post a Comment