Interesting news release for an upcoming press conference on Thursday given by NASA's Astrobiology team. Uncertain if it'll be as groundbreaking as it might seem at first (no E.T.s trying to phone home and all), but this is still quite big news if I understand matters correctly.
What do you think? Think this will be a small step toward a near-future discovery of advanced/intelligent extraterrestrial life? And if this were to occur, what changes, if any, do you think such a discovery might make in how we view ourselves and our place in the world(s) around us?
A Raindrop
3 days ago
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5 comments:
Well, I did just finish reading Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.
so I'm chuckling, and cringing a little.
I suspect that it won't be life, but it's hard not to think that the announcement is about that, particularly considering how the announcement is phrased and what one's mind automatically goes to upon reading it.
I can say that I hope it's the discovery of life elsewhere. Because that would be amazing.
I have tentative plans of showing this to my students Thursday afternoon (the joys of having a relatively unstructured school within a rehab center). While I think it's likely nothing more than chemical traits that are associated with amino acids, it still is more exciting than water ice being found on Mars :P
I was quite confused by my feed reader. For one, I saw the title and immediately thought Warren Ellis had posted about it and then I saw that it was you instead. Second, the link the feed post lead to the Spitzer mission page, which, while interesting, has little relevance to the topic.
If this press conference is about finding some dormant bacteria on Mars I will be quite disappointed.
Maybe they actually found a planet (or moon) actually capable of supporting life. Because, yeah, pretty much anything is more exciting than hearing about water ice on Mars.
I agree, vanilla or strawberry ice would be a lot more fun. :)
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