tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532871.post7163587961715186695..comments2024-03-13T13:29:33.800-05:00Comments on SocraticGadfly: Does NASA 'new' life form signal multiple evolutionary tracksUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532871.post-2125159859237337992010-12-03T14:54:20.607-06:002010-12-03T14:54:20.607-06:00I am by no means the only person who has said he o...<em>I am by no means the only person who has said he or she thought the paper, etc., was rushed. To analogize: Bite size chunks can be undercooked and, IMO, this chunk needed more time on the grill.</em><br /><br />Considering that most of what people have said about this even by your claim is BS, you have no safety in numbers. How cooked a research project is can always be questioned. There is no proper amount. It is always true that a project could have been taken further or published earlier. Post hoc quarterbacking on that aspect is a waste of time.<br /><br />I'm pretty sure there are A+/P- envoronments in the universe.<br /><br />Mono lake is not a complete enigma. It is a research site even for people at the LRC (where I was a faculty member for a few years). I'm pretty sure that the research there has been interesting but spotty . If a grad student came to me and said "We have a good handle on the bacterial flora here" I'd make them do pushups.Greg Ladenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857616630819182647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532871.post-41521146500172458612010-12-03T14:30:05.900-06:002010-12-03T14:30:05.900-06:00Greg, addressing your second comment first: What y...Greg, addressing your second comment first: <i>What you need to understand is this: Research works this way these days. The simple easy discoveries, where a few facts can be quickly uncovered and reported are long over.</i><br />I am <i>by no means</i> the only person who has said he or she thought the paper, etc., was rushed. To analogize: Bite size chunks can be undercooked and, IMO, this chunk needed more time on the grill.<br /><br />Then, your first statement: <i>This organism (the Mono lake bacterium) itself is an ordinary bacterium that can do a rather spectacular trick. </i> <br />Oh, I got that from the start. But, per me, PZ Myers and many others, there's disagreement on how "spectacular" the trick is, especially given that this was a trick induced in a controlled environment. Again, I note: Mono Lake already has a high arsenic level, and (so far at least) no similar arsenophilic bacteria have been found in the natural environment of the lake. Add in the relative weakness of arsenic bond to phosphorus ones in water, and, at least on Earth, that leaves open the question of just how likely it is.<br /><br />Now, tying that to exobiology. I don't know what difference, if any, Mars has from Earth in As/P ratios. Given the fact that wasn't mentioned in the presser, the answer is either "little difference" or else "oops, big NASA error." But, short of something like that, a talk of environmental differences, NASA erred again, or "fluffed/hyped," in making the exobiology link.Gadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532871.post-69482136123372038102010-12-03T14:11:51.387-06:002010-12-03T14:11:51.387-06:00Regarding this:
So, this needs a LOT more resear...Regarding this: <br /><br /><em>So, this needs a LOT more research. It ain't Pons-Fleischmann trotting out cold fusion, no, but, it does seem ... sketchy, so far.</em><br /><br />What you need to understand is this: Research works this way these days. The simple easy discoveries, where a few facts can be quickly uncovered and reported are long over. Research is always published in bite size chunks. There are no papers that come out and answer all the questions for a brand new line of research. Rather, one bit comes out at a time, and each bit justifies further research for the next (via funding) and at the same time exposed what is going on in the data, the reasoning, etc. for critique and development of ideas.Greg Ladenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857616630819182647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532871.post-51886824969930831412010-12-03T14:09:32.249-06:002010-12-03T14:09:32.249-06:00Just to be clear: This organism (the Mono lake ba...Just to be clear: This organism (the Mono lake bacterium) itself is an ordinary bacterium that can do a rather spectacular trick. It is the trick it self, as it were, that opens up our thinking into parallel origins on earth as well as refines our thinking for what might be possible on other planets/moons.Greg Ladenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857616630819182647noreply@blogger.com