from Hacker News

Protein discovered inside a meteorite

by _bpgl on 3/3/20, 7:04 PM with 60 comments

• by rolph on 3/3/20, 7:45 PM

  A team of researchers from Plex Corporation, Bruker Scientific LLC and Harvard University > has found evidence of < a protein inside of a meteorite.

  there is a mismatch between the title of that article and the level of confidence these researchers were expressing.

  the preprint is here:

  https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11688

• by shadowgovt on 3/3/20, 7:41 PM

  I need to make time to ask someone to ELI5 to me how this research is done without contaminating the sample with terrestrial-originated protein. The meteorite was on Earth for some time, and bacteria are staggeringly invasive little bugs.

  I believe they successfully avoid contamination, but I have no idea how.

• by shartshooter on 3/3/20, 10:46 PM

  I read a comment on HN or Reddit a while back about how some molecules were found in a meteorite that were left-handed where every molecule on earth is right-handed or something to that extent.

  If my memory serves it was as if molecules fit together like a lock and key except this molecule's key/lock combo was inverted.

  Apologies if I'm bungling it up but it felt as though it was significant. As if the molecule found was unlike any molecule on earth due to its lock/key orientation.

• by westmeal on 3/3/20, 7:28 PM

  Proponents of panspermia are pretty happy about this finding I bet.

• by VT_Dude on 3/3/20, 9:18 PM

  Before we even get into the role of expert peer reviewers, does the article pass basic tests of authenticity, let alone extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof?

  The third author of the referenced paper does have a page at Harvard, here: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mcgeoch/index.html where she says she is at the "Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University" but she's not listed as faculty in that department here: https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/

  Could be a student... but do a search for Malcolm. W. McGeoch, Sergei Dikler, Julie E. M. McGeoch from Plex Corporation, Bruker Scientific LLC and Harvard University

  and you will start to wonder if these people even know their names have been used in this article. Shame on phys.org for not calling the author for a quote or doing any other legwork to convince me this is anything other than a UFO hoax or the output of a paper-writing AI. It could be, but ...journalist please.

• by MockObject on 3/3/20, 8:46 PM

  They believe that this meteorite is native to our solar system, so it's not a candidate for panspermia from anywhere interesting.

• by DrOctagon on 3/4/20, 1:30 AM

  Crunchy on the outside, chewy protein center.

• by aldoushuxley001 on 3/3/20, 7:46 PM

  Seems like this should be bigger news

• by lxmorj on 3/4/20, 4:55 AM

  Don’t build my app

• by naynay on 3/3/20, 10:11 PM

  just mix with all the ones that were already

• by rafaelvasco on 3/3/20, 7:39 PM

  Nothing to be surprised about. The seeds of Life are everywhere. Earth is just a tiny microscopic point compared to the infinity of the Universe;