On Fri, 16 Aug 1996 11:52:23 -0700 (MST), Thomas L Moore wrote:
TM>Bart Nagy, a organic geochemist at the U. of Arizona, died last
>year. At the time I didn't know much about him. However, his
>family has released much of his old research materials to the grad
>students here. After pulling out over 100 references I really
>wanted to read, I wished I had a chance to talk with the man.
>The reason why I bring this up is that I typed in all the references I
>aquired from his collection and put them up on my Creation/Evolution
>Reference Database homepage. If you look, here are the kinds of
>references you'll find:
>
>1) Possible extraterrestrial life in meteors
>2) Prebiotic/abiogenic experiments
>3) Questions of life on mars
>4) Questions about planetary atmospheres
>5) radiocarbon dating methods
>6) meteorites
Nagy's name was mentioned in the editorial of this week's New
Scientist. He was the scientist who originally claimed that the
organic matter in the 1864 Orgueil meteorite was evidence of
extraterrestrial life. Here is the editorial which sounds a note of
caution based on the Orgueil experience:
========================================================
"`WE believe that wherever this meteorite originated, something
lived,' says the New York Times, quoting scientists involved in
discovering that a meteorite contained complex hydrocarbons and the
imprint of fossil `life forms'. Elsewhere, a famous scientist
describes the discovery as "the most astounding fact of all
scientific study in recent years". And a controversial paper
proclaims "the composition of the hydrocarbons...provide evidence for
biogenic activity".
But it's not meteorite ALH84001 and it's not even 1996. The
meteorite is called Orgueil, the year is 1961 and the world is having
its first encounter with claims of extraterrestrial life carried aboard
meteorites.
If those claims had been substantiated, they would indeed have been
"astounding"' and shaken up our view of the Universe quite as much
as ALH84001 now threatens to do. But, before getting too deep into
the implications of it all, perhaps it's worth considering Orgueil as a
cautionary tale.
The meteorite fell on France in 1864 and was examined by Louis
Pasteur, among others, because of the surprising amount of organic
matter it contained. But it wasn't until 1961 that Bartholomew Nagy
of Fordham University. New York and his colleagues claimed that
this organic matter had a biological origin. Analysis with a mass
spectrometer showed up hydrocarbons in the meteorite which seemed
a lot like those in various biological materials, including butter. Nagy
also found "microscopic sized particles, resembling algae, in relatively
large quantities". Several of these "life forms" even stained positively
for the presence of nucleic acid.
Not surprisingly, these claims triggered intense scientific debate.
Edward Anders of the Enrico Eermi Institute in Chicago was the
main critic. He found that several of the more complex "life forms"
were earthly contaminants including ragweed pollen. The tests for the
presence of nucleic acid proved inadequate, giving false positives
even with clean earthly rocks. Other life forms were identified as
supercooled droplets of sulphur. And the coup de grace came when
Anders described how lifelike hydrocarbons could have been created
in space through reactions driven by cosmic rays.
Nagy's views gradually lost support, and by 1975 even he concluded
that the "life forms" were unlikely to be "extraterrestrial microfossils".
After 14 years, the debate was over. Does a similar fate await
ALH84001? Following the initial enthusiasm, will each piece of
evidence for life on Mars gradually be taken apart until nothing is
left? There is certainly room for doubt (see p4). But let's be optimistic
and hope that this time they're right.
Think of the implications of finding fossil life on Mars. We have
looked at the rocks on only two planets, Earth and Mars, and both
contain life- a 100 per cent success rate. And we've also just
discovered that planets are common around near- by stars. So life
should be common throughout our Galaxy. That's a huge shock or
thrill depending on taste. But, just a moment. If life is so common
why has the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI as it's
known in the trade, drawn a blank? Why do we see no extraterrestrial
artefacts on Earth or in the Solar System? As Enrico Fermi so
memorably asked: "Where are they?"
One possibility is that advanced civilisations do not use radio waves
for communication. Another is that we have not looked hard enough
for signs of intelligent life. Maybe they are out there but deliberately
obeying a Star Trek- like policy of noninterference with emerging
civilisations .
That last possibility is a little hard to believe. Given that it takes a
message 150,000 years to cross the Galaxy at the speed of light, not
every starfaring civilisation could be aware of Federation rules, Surely
someone would have blundered into our region of the Galaxy by
now. Perhaps advanced civilisations always end in self-destruction?
But surely there would be some exceptions. Perhaps travel between
the stars is very hard and that's why extraterrestrials have not arrived.
That, too, is difficult to believe.
Whichever way you look at it, we seem left with the depressing
conclusion that advanced civilisations must be very rare. The lesson
from Mars may be that it is easier to create life than it is for it to
evolve to an advanced stage. If ALH84001 really contains Martian
life forms, it may be a lonely message. We may after all be one of the
first advanced civilizations, destined to wander through space finding
plenty of protoplasm, but nobody to talk to.
(Editorial., "Lonely Little Earthlings", New Scientist, Vol 151, No.
2043, 17 August 1996, p3)
========================================================
BTW New Scientist has a web page at http://www.newscientist.com
(which I haven't looked at recently) but which apparently has
extensive links to sites carrying Mars meteorite info.
God bless.
Steve
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