July 8, 2007
THERE JUST HAS TO BE A UNICORN IN THERE SOMEWHERE:
Scientists call for wider search for alien life (Carl Zimmer, July 8, 2007, International Herald Tribune)
A panel of scientists convened by America's leading scientific advisory group says the hunt for extraterrestrial life should be greatly expanded to include what they call "weird life": organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life as we know it.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2007 8:38 PM
Who actually pays the salaries of these parasites?
Don't you long for the days when scientists actually did something useful, like inventing a new kind of soap that makes the age-old remedy to all of our problems (washing our hands--even Pilate believed it) faster and easier?
Instead we have the "weird life" of advisory commitees that serve no purpose and live on and on forever.
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 8, 2007 9:24 PMNo.
Posted by: oj at July 8, 2007 10:04 PMIt wasn't that long ago, you know, just before women burned their bras and men burned their britches.
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 8, 2007 11:03 PMThe National Academy of Science has been around since 1863. It wasn't one of those New Deal creations.
It might, of course, have decayed in the past few decades. It hasn't been led by a Nobel-Prize winner lately.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at July 8, 2007 11:27 PMFrom their website:
"The NAS was signed into being by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War. As mandated in its Act of Incorporation, the NAS has, since 1863, served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government."
Even Honest Abe was duped.
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 9, 2007 12:24 AM