Friday, 18 June 2010

move over Alan Hills 84001

I have a new favorite meteorite: the Orgueil Meteorite.


I learned about this meteorite in Echoes of Life, a book about the history of organic geochemistry (what I'm studying in grad school). The Orgueil meteorite landed in France in the 1860s, and was sealed in a jar until the 1960s, when scientists had developed the instruments (GC-MS) that could analyze it for signs of life (organic molecules). They soon realized that someone had glued bits of pollen to it, and disguised the glue with coal dust. " Whilst the perpetrator is unknown, it is thought that the hoax was aimed at influencing 19th century debate on spontaneous generation by demonstrating the transformation of inorganic to biological matter."

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