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View Full Version : Phil Plait: Party pooper?



Fazor
2010-Dec-01, 06:20 PM
Just saw this (http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/01/did-e-t-finally-phone-home/?hpt=C2) on CNN.com in an article about a NASA press conference planned for Thursday, and speculation over what the phrase "to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." might mean.


Leave it to Discover.com's level-headed Phil Plait to throw a wet space blanket on the hype over the possible discover of extraterrestrial life:

"It seems really unlikely; I don't think they would announce it in this way," he writes. "It would've been under tighter wraps, for one thing. It's more likely they've found a new way life can exist and that evidence for these conditions exists on other worlds. But without more info, I won't speculate any farther than that."

Hmfph. Party pooper.

. . . at least they called him a 'level-headed party pooper.'

TheOncomingStorm
2010-Dec-01, 07:32 PM
Well the discovery seems to be that they have measured the atmosphere of the first super-earth and contains vapours from gases.

Also Phil's blog seems to have been over ran by posters because all I get is time out page when I refresh. Maybe it his latest giveaway od this news.

Messier Tidy Upper
2010-Dec-05, 11:36 AM
Not quite - I think its actually all about the arsenic loving & DNA incl. extrermophile bacteria of Mono Lake. See :

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/12/02/nasas-real-news-bacterium-on-earth-that-lives-off-arsenic/

&

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/12/04/brief-arsenic-followup/

An interesting find but not quite the "super-dooper ZOMG!!! Wowwee!" news that it was built up to be as far as most folks are concerned.