this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
123 points (97.7% liked)

Science

13206 readers
7 users here now

Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Finding alien technology on the seafloor would be truly incredible. This extraordinary claim, however, is debunked by the actual evidence.

top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel it is important to publicise refutations of extraordinary claims widely.

The media generally loves to publish the extraordinary claims. especially ALIENS!! but is silent when the results comeback as "Sorry, they were wrong."

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well evidence of aliens is news. Proof something isn’t aliens happens every day /s

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Allen bites man? You run that headline every day of the week. Man bites alien, find s out it's a cookie? Please.

[–] Davel23@kbin.social 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The "Harvard astronomer" in question is Avi Loeb, who's a complete nutjob.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

I was wondering if they bribed their way in.

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

This is a case of everyone having one of “those uncles.”

That said, I’m much more offended at John Yoo, author of the torture memos saying George Bush has the right to do anything because he’s the president, being hired as a law professor at Berkeley.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Somehow I knew it would be him from the headline. He has been making himself look a fool for years now.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"The pollution was coming from inside the atmosphere."

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

This feels Gary Larson. But why...

[–] ubermeisters@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Finding alien technology on the seafloor would be truly incredible. This extraordinary claim, however, is debunked by the actual evidence

Rect

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

As Carl Sagan said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and is this case the evidence has been found to have a much simpler explanation.

[–] null 5 points 1 year ago

"Alien spherules" sounds like a 196 post title

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn. In the food we eat, the water that sustains us and all else, and the air in our lungs.

[–] ubermeisters@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It turns out we were the aliens all along

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Invasive species at least. :-/

[–] jmichaelsturm@fosstodon.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Pons_Aelius Thank you for posting this great discussion of the science related to Loeb’s extraordinary claims. It always bothered me that he was so certain that the spherules his team found MUST have come from the meteor. To me, it seems improbable that they could so easily find fragments in a large search area within a couple of weeks. The isotope analysis counteracting the claim of interstellar origin is fascinating!

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I found it really strange as well. The whole story had me thinking conformation bias from the beginning.

It always bothered me that he was so certain that the spherules his team found MUST have come from the meteor.

Exactly. Especially considering there are at least 5 papers dating back to the 1950s describing magnetic spherules found on the seafloor and being from anthropogenic sources.