The scientific method acting is a beautiful affair . For those of you who may not be conversant with it , this multi - step empiric procedure allows the scientific biotic community to not only come up with some pretty bold finding , but for others to essay , copy , and potentially confute those resultant .
Two years ago , a team of scientistsannouncedthey had find the worldly concern ’s older fossil preserved in rock in Greenland . In the journalNature , the Australian - establish squad claimed these odd construction were once microbes living on the ancient seafloor . At a mere 3.7 billion years honest-to-god , it would mean that living had formed much quick and easier than we had originally thought .
At the sentence , NASA astrobiologist Abigail Allwood was so optimistic about the finding that she write a letter supporting them . before long after , though , she feel something might be a bit off . So , she carry her bags – and a fewX - ray instrumentsmeant for Mars – and lead to Greenland with a team of researchers .
Together , they created a 3D chemical map of the “ fossil ” structures , which she contend do n’t have the same chemical signature tune of ossified living . If these remain were in fact stromatolites , single - celled microbes , they would have grown upwards from the seafloor and fix themselves in a gooey mucous secretion that amass mineral from the seawater , which then stratum , harden , and fossilize . Ultimately , they form in different sizes but always take on a conoid , column , or dome material body .
“ By contrast , when take in orthogonally the stone record flat , even layer without any stromatolites , bump or irregularities , ” wrote Allwood in her letter of the alphabet also published inNature . She proceed that when her team bring down into the outcrop , samples were not a cone , but rather a ridge shape that went several column inch deep into the rock – a product more likely from geological than biologic process .
The Australian scientist who worked on the first paper maintain their finding are still logical .
“ We expected that our publication would generate new investigations and looked forward to the results , ” Vickie Bennett , who work in Greenland on the original investigation , toldThe Atlantic . “ But [ Allwood ’s ] cursory probe , ground on a less - than - one - day field slip to the outcrops , which were partially covered in coke at the sentence , only serves to confound our former piece of work . ”
She and study co - generator maintain Allwood focused on an outer , more deformed area rather than the more - intact central areas . “ They basically did not expect at the same rocks , ” sound out Bennett .
Allwood argues the area she studied was less than a measure away from the original – and her single day there was “ enough to confute them ” , particularly when they analyzed the sample distribution back in the science laboratory .
Not only does it have logical implication for our sympathy of how life evolved on Earth , but it serve as a “ cautionary fib in the research for sign of past life on Mars , ” say Allwood , who is an investigator onNASA’sMars 2020 delegacy . It reminds us of the need to highlight “ the grandness of three - dimensional , incorporate psychoanalysis of morphology , rock music textile , and geochemistry at appropriate musical scale . ”
