I just read this piece from the space.com website: "Are Earthlings from Mars?" The post begins this way: It's possible that the family tree of all life on Earth has its roots on Mars — and a new device could put that theory to the test in a few years, researchers say....
science
Shock: Baltic Sea ‘Underwater UFO’ not an Alien Spaceship
Another blow to the faith of thousands.
Ancient Aliens, Religion, and Nature.Com
Dr. Michael Blume, author of the SciLogs blog, whose focus is "the nature of faith / evolutionary studies of religion, was kind enough to ask me for a short interview regarding why modern people believe in PaleoSETI -- visitation of earth by aliens in antiquity. I was...
Helpful Summary of the “God Particle”
The UFO Trail (a blog I recommend following) posted a helpful summary of the Higgs-Boson particle ("God particle") discovery. It's brief and covers the salient points, including the regrettable hype.
Sorry, But I Just Can’t Get Excited About the “God Particle”
Okay, I'm not a physicist, so there's going to be an enthusiasm gap from the get-go. Still, I guess that the new "discovery" (if that's an accurate label; still seems to be some level of uncertainty there) of the Higgs-Boson "God particle" is truly important. But the...
“We Couldn’t Build the Great Pyramid Today” – We Could Do Better
I'm nearly finished with the book by David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914. I don't ever want to hear any such nonsensical statement again about how the Great Pyramid is beyond modern reach. Ever. To not laugh when I...
Tunguska: Mythology Versus Science
Readers conversant in UFO lore will recall that the 1908 Tunguska event has not escaped the "UFOs are the key to the theory of everything" mindset that infects many in the ufological community. While scientists have opted for mundane explanations for the event, like...
Not Quite Panspermia
Readers who follow the panspermia discussion in science outlets aimed at the non-specialist may find the recent news release / article from Science Daily of interest: "Organic Carbon from Mars, but not Biological." Close, but no cigar. A biological outcome would...
Validating Signs of Intelligence (Where We Want to Anyway)
What if someday we detect a signal from outer space that turned out to be the Fibonacci sequence? Would that be proof of extraterrestrial intelligence? Be careful how you answer!
Extraterrestrial Life Comes from Earth?
The Uncommon Descent blog has some pull quotes from an article from the Technology Review/Physics Archive blog entitled, The Amazing Trajectories of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth that make that point. This is the idea that, when earth was struck by space objects...
Are We Alone? A Summary of the Issues
I just listened to a short podcast from the Skeptoid blog entitled, "Are We Alone." It's a good, succinct survey of the problems and obstacles to being optimistic about other inhabited worlds and intelligent civilizations -- in terms of there being such a thing, our...
The Higgs-Boson Hype
I like to post on things like this every so often to remind readers that science can be marred by, and married to, hype. I was reading through some recent posts by mathematician Peter Woit on his Not Even Wrong blog this morning and came across several items worth...
BioStation Alpha: Amateur Astronomer Discovers Artificial Structure on Mars?
[[UPDATE: There's now a fifth alternative interpretation -- one not listed below. Alfred McEwen, a planetary geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona, postulates that, "It looks like a linear streak artifact produced by a cosmic ray,"...
Lead Codices to Be Tested
Todd Bolen reports today that the lead codices already widely considered to be fraudulent will be undergoing testing by antiquities authorities. For those of you just getting up to speed on this, here's a link to an overview of the reasons they are considered fakes. I...
Some Non-Falsifiable Darwinian "Science" Applied to ET Life
Thanks to the Uncommon Descent blog for its post, Darwin's natural selection explains why we don't see space aliens. Here's a bit that tells you all you need to know about the scientific merit of this explanation for why we haven't found ET (and perhaps how...