Tracks and Traces 03.06.11

Over the weekend, the Journal of Cosmology released a controversial paper by Richard Hoover which claims that fossilized cyanobacteria have been found inside a meteorite. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, though, and the paper’s analysis is unconvincing. Hoover has been making these claims for years now, and serious technical problems mar the new analysis (to say nothing of the journal’s strange editorial stance and focus on fringe science). Just because something looks like a fossil doesn’t necessarily make it so, and I am keen to read the critical comments about

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