NosyNed writes:
quote:
Uh, these are, at best, fossilized bacteria.
And in the case of the Martian rock that caused such a stir a few years ago, they're not even that.
Instead, they're magnetite crystals that we tend to find in certain bacteria here on earth.
In other words, it would be as if you found some hydroxyapatite and noting that since we find this material mostly in bones and teeth, that must mean that the hydroxyapatite came from a living creature. It's a huge jump, especially if, as in the case of the magnetite crystals found on the Martian rocks, there is a tremendous difference in scale between what we found and what shows up on Earth (if I recall correctly, the crystals on the Martian rocks are so small that, if we assume a consistency in size between bacterium and crystal, the Martian bacteria would be the smallest organism ever encountered.)
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Rrhain
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