http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/31.htm
Metamorphosis [ Star Trek television series episode ]
Original Airdate: Nov 10, 1967
(from internet transcript)
NANCY Hedford, Federation Commissioner: I was sent to Epsilon Canaris Three to prevent a war, Doctor. Thanks to the inefficiency of the medical branch of the Starfleet, I've been forced to leave before my job was done.
Captain KIRK: Commissioner, I can assure you that once we reach the Enterprise, with its medical facilities, we'll have you back to your job in time for you to prevent that war.
NANCY: How soon will we rendezvous with that ship of yours, Captain?
KIRK: In exactly four hours, twenty one minutes, Commissioner.
SPOCK: Captain.
KIRK: Yes?
SPOCK: Will you check your automatic scanner, please?
KIRK: That's odd. I've never seen anything like that before.
SPOCK: Nor have I.
From 7/22/1992 ( George Bush - Executive Order 12812—Declassification and Release of Materials Pertaining to Prisoners of War and Missing in Action ) To 8/6/1996 ( the US NASA Mars rock announcement ) is 1476 days
1476 = 738 + 738
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 11/10/1967 ( premiere US TV series episode "Star Trek"::"Metamorphosis" ) is 738 days
Other posts by me, Kerry Burgess, on this topic, future updates by me possible
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19960807&slug=2343027
The Seattle Times
Wednesday, August 7, 1996
Life On Mars: Scientists `Thrilled' By Prospect -- Ancient Meteorite Yields Clues
Seattle Times News Services
WASHINGTON - Earthlings have yearned for centuries to find life on Mars. Now a NASA study offers the first serious evidence of microbes on the Red Planet.
Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and three universities said they have determined that tiny fissures in an ancient meteorite, found in Antarctica in 1984, bore evidence of Martian microorganisms.
"We believe we have found quite reasonable evidence of past life on Mars," David McKay, a Johnson Space Center planetary scientist who led the team, said today. "We don't claim that we have conclusively proven it."
President Clinton called the findings exciting and said he would convene a summit this year on the space program's future to "discuss how America should pursue answers" to questions raised about life on Mars.
"If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered," Clinton said. "Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined."
At a news conference today, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin cautioned that researchers were not claiming "ultimate proof" of life beyond Earth but circumstantial evidence they want other scientists to study and then prove or disprove.
"All of us are skeptical," Goldin said, "but thrilled and humbled by this prospect."
Hope and doubt
Other scientists who have devoted their lives to the prospect of
extraterrestrial life greeted the news with a mix of hope and doubt - and noted there's only one way to confirm the finding.
Said Laurie Leshin, a planetary geochemist at the University of California at Los Angeles: "I'm highly skeptical. We should go to Mars to get a proper sample."
The study's 15 scientists found complex organic molecules of the sort required for carbon-based life - and created by bacteria on Earth.
They assembled a list of features they identified. Each of which, taken individually, could be explained by nonbiological means.
But, they write, "when considered collectively . . . we conclude that (these phenomena) are evidence for primitive life on early Mars."
Based on elaborate chemistry, mineralogy and other tests, the scientists said they believed the rock had been crystallized from molten rock about 4.5 billion years ago, and the organic matter formed in the rock about 3.6 billion years ago.
A meteor blast on Mars about 15 million years ago sent the softball-sized rock fragment into space, and it fell to Earth about 13,000 years ago.
The meteorite, called Allan Hills 84001, is the oldest of 12 known specimens that are thought to have been jolted from Mars. Their origin is based on chemistry that matches measurements made on Mars by the Viking landers in 1976.
The study was conducted by scientists at NASA; Lockheed Martin; McGill University in Montreal; the University of Georgia; and Stanford University.
It was prepared for publication in the journal Science next week. Copies were released yesterday after word of the research raced through the scientific community.
What they found
The researchers used recent advances in laser mass spectrometry and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy to study thin slices of the meteorite. They found easily detectable amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) - a type of simple organic material commonly found on Earth.
But PAHs aren't very common in Antartica. And the material was found in a high concentration - and in the center of the meteorite, which was sealed by a crust formed when it burned through the atmosphere.
They also found mineral compounds, iron sulfides and magnetite, in tiny structures millionths of an inch across that resemble fossilized bacteria in rocks on Earth - although much smaller. These minerals can be deposited as the byproduct of some living organism.
"They were egg-shaped and tubular. Some were wormy-like," said Stanford chemist Richard Zare.
The skeptics
Scientists, not all of whom had seen the study, weighed in:
-- David Paige, UCLA planetary scientist: "Spectacular findings demand spectacular proof. I'll be watching the press conference."
-- Jack Farmer, a paleobiologist at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.: "If that's the evidence, I don't believe it."
-- John Kerridge, a planetary scientist at the University of California, San Diego: "The conclusion is at best premature and more probably wrong. You should not go public with evidence that's less than 100 percent sure. This is much less than 100 percent sure."
-- Klaus Biemann, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and the science-team leader who studied photos of Mars' surface taken by the Viking landers in the 1970s, criticized the researchers' link of trace minerals to Martian life: "That's nonsense."
-- Carl Sagan, the author-scientist at Cornell who has written about the search for extraterrestrial life for 40 years, called the findings "evocative and very exciting." But he said the organic chemicals reported in the study "are not evidence of life."
But, said Sagan: "If it is truly a microfossil from ancient Martian history, it is a transforming discovery in the history of science. Not just that, but it provides a profound perspective on our place in the universe."
Martians: long speculated
Conjecture about life on Mars dates from the 1700s, when observers discovered the red planet had seasons. In 1878, an Italian observer erroneously reported there were canals on Mars, leading to speculation about intelligent life.
Some scientists speculate that life, perhaps bacteria or fungi, may presently exist on Mars in permafrost or beneath the white polar caps.
They also believe Mars once contained vast amounts of water and was warmer, and that life could have existed in its oceans.
U.S. Mars exploration resumes this year with the launch in December of the Mars Pathfinder. The mission includes a lander that will deploy a small wheeled explorer to collect soil samples.
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/31.htm
Metamorphosis [ Star Trek television series episode ]
Original Airdate: Nov 10, 1967
(from internet transcript)
Captain KIRK: Mister Cochrane, you say you were brought here a hundred and fifty years ago? You don't look a day over thirty five.
Zefram COCHRANE: I haven't aged. The Companion sees to that.
SPOCK: Captain. These instruments, they date from the time indicated. From your ship, Mister Cochrane?
COCHRANE: I cannibalised it. The food, water, gardens, everything else I need the Companion gives me. Apparently, it creates it out of the native elements.
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http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/31.htm
Metamorphosis [ Star Trek television series episode ]
Original Airdate: Nov 10, 1967
(from internet transcript)
Captain KIRK: You say you can communicate with it. Perhaps you can find out what we're doing here.
Zefram COCHRANE: I already know.
KIRK: You wouldn't mind telling us?
COCHRANE: You won't like it.
KIRK: I already don't like it.
- posted by Kerry Burgess 12:57 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Tuesday 11/19/2019
