Life On Mars..?

[Le Monsieur]

On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, Chris Bates wrote:
> The meteorite hits Antarctica N years ago. The fossils of the primitive
> lifeforms are greater than N years old so they must've been in the
> meteorite when it landed. It probably didn't stop off on the way so the
> lifeforms come from Mars.

Well, that's assuming they were using dating techniques that work.
[Hmmm, maybe *I* should start using dating techniques that work... :) ]

Seriously, though, C-14 dating is only accurate to something in 5
digits.  (20 or 30,000, is it?)  And even if they did try and
isotopically date it with something more accurate, they are making a
HUGE-ass umption:  that the isotopic ratio in Mars' atmosphere is
comparable to Earth's.

Damon Capehart        | "I think we should eliminate semicolons from the
aka Le Monsieur       |  English language; nobody uses them anymore
dcapehar at utdallas.edu |  anyway." - one of Dilbert's anonymous coworkers