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NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

nasa.gov

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Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#3

Post by j_baker »

iwr wrote: post #2

Likely scenario: they found ancient life forms in lake Vostok, deep below the Antarctic ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

...or they didn't. :-)

Though I am curious: why are they announcing this via a press conference? It seems as though they would publish a paper to be peer-reviewed or something first.

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#5

Post by 27182818284 »

j_baker wrote: post #3
iwr wrote: post #2

Likely scenario: they found ancient life forms in lake Vostok, deep below the Antarctic ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

...or they didn't. :-) Though I am curious: why are they announcing this via a press conference? It seems as though they would publish a paper to be peer-reviewed or something first.

> It seems as though they would publish a paper to be peer-reviewed or something first

They did. The link mentions that it is under embargo until the time of the conference. It says "Science Journal" so I'm guessing that is an odd way of referring to the journal Science.

The italics are a bit off to me. Maybe they meant "Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 11 a.m. PST On Dec. 2"

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#6

Post by VladRussian »

j_baker wrote: post #3
iwr wrote: post #2

Likely scenario: they found ancient life forms in lake Vostok, deep below the Antarctic ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

...or they didn't. :-) Though I am curious: why are they announcing this via a press conference? It seems as though they would publish a paper to be peer-reviewed or something first.

"Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 11 a.m. PST On Dec. 2"

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#7

Post by robryan »

j_baker wrote: post #3
iwr wrote: post #2

Likely scenario: they found ancient life forms in lake Vostok, deep below the Antarctic ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

...or they didn't. :-) Though I am curious: why are they announcing this via a press conference? It seems as though they would publish a paper to be peer-reviewed or something first.

The past track record though on these things seems to indicate though that these press conferences fall more into the very interesting discovery for scientists and those who follow it, rather than ground breaking discovery that hits the front pages in general publications.

Although saying that if something truly ground breaking were discovered it wouldn't surprise me if it were announced in the same way.

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#9

Post by ANH »

Perhaps they've sussed out something about what we should expect to see in extraterrestrial life at the molecular (e.g. DNA) level. The biggest clue is the list of participants. One of them specializes in research on non-standard biology. I'm guessing the announcement will be something along the lines of, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", and it's right here on Earth!
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