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Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
#1
Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
Was it too good to be true?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/1...more-44335
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens

"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".

- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "

- Dr. Donald Prothero
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#2
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
Seems like it could be shoddy methodology.

The experiment needs to be replicated by an independent lab.
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#3
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
(December 8, 2010 at 7:25 am)theVOID Wrote: Seems like it could be shoddy methodology.

The experiment needs to be replicated by an independent lab.

Yes, as I pointed out in my earlier post on the subject.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens

"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".

- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "

- Dr. Donald Prothero
Reply
#4
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
It's quite a funny turn of events, from "NASA finds alien life" to "Bacteria uses arsenic to build DNA" to "Lazy researchers forget to prep experiment properly"
.
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#5
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
(December 8, 2010 at 7:29 am)theVOID Wrote: It's quite a funny turn of events, from "NASA finds alien life" to "Bacteria uses arsenic to build DNA" to "Lazy researchers forget to prep experiment properly"

It underscores the importance of peer review and not "jumping the gun" before you have all your eggs sorted.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens

"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".

- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "

- Dr. Donald Prothero
Reply
#6
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
Just like the new Penrose "Circular structures in the CMB"
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#7
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
It sounds like it would be a real beginners error any chance that the NASA scientist did a poor job on the research paper?

The world is a dangerous place to live - not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- Albert Einstein
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#8
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
(December 8, 2010 at 9:09 am)lilyannerose Wrote: It sounds like it would be a real beginners error any chance that the NASA scientist did a poor job on the research paper?

You mean a poor job on the paper and not the research it's self? Not that I know, it seems their methodology was flawed in some fundamental areas, they misrepresented the scenario and results as well as taking little to no measures for control and eliminating bias.

A good write up:

http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/a...nasas.html
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#9
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
Quote:theVOID' pid='108811' dateline='1291814178']
You mean a poor job on the paper and not the research it's self?


Exactly, it sounds like the kind of ignorant error someone like me would make!

Confused Fall

Thanks for the link!


The world is a dangerous place to live - not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- Albert Einstein
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#10
RE: Doubts Brew About NASA’s New Arsenic Life
This is why I refused to comment on this thread, they jumped the gun: http://atheistforums.org/thread-5492.html

The findings of the experiments were under scrutiny from the get-go, they didn't go through peer-review, arsenate is NOT arsenic, and said bacteria are merely resistant to the harmful ions as opposed to actually incorporating the compound/element in substitution of phosphorus.

(December 8, 2010 at 7:29 am)theVOID Wrote: It's quite a funny turn of events, from "NASA finds alien life" to "Bacteria uses arsenic to build DNA" to "Lazy researchers forget to prep experiment properly"
Change that headline to "Astrobiology research team loses funding from NASA". Big Grin
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