NASA scientists row over alien microbes

WASHINGTON (AFP)– Top NASA scientists said there was no scientific evidence to support a colleague's claim that fossils of alien microbes born in outer space had been found in meteorites on Earth.

The US space agency formally distanced itself from the paper by NASA scientist Richard Hoover, whose findings were published Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmology, which is available free online.

"That is a claim that Mr Hoover has been making for some years," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute.

"I am not aware of any support from other meteorite researchers for this rather extraordinary claim that this evidence of microbes was present in the meteorite before the meteorite arrived on Earth and and was not the result of contamination after the meteorite arrived on Earth," he told AFP.

"The simplest explanation is that there are microbes in the meteorites; they are Earth microbes. In other words, they are contamination."

Pilcher said the meteorites that Hoover studied fell to Earth 100 to 200 years ago and have been heavily handled by humans,"so you would expect to find microbes in these meteorites."

Paul Hertz, chief scientist of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, also issued a statement saying NASA did not support Hoover's findings.

"While we value the free exchange of ideas, data and information as part of scientific and technical inquiry, NASA cannot stand behind or support a scientific claim unless it has been peer-reviewed or thoroughly examined by other qualified experts," Hertz said.

"NASA also was unaware of the recent submission of the paper to the Journal of Cosmology or of the paper's subsequent publication."

He noted that the paper did not complete the peer-review process after being submitted in 2007 to the International Journal of Astrobiology.

According to the study, Hoover sliced open fragments of several types of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which can contain relatively high levels of water and organic materials, and looked inside with a powerful microscope, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM).

He found bacteria-like creatures, calling them"indigenous fossils" that originated beyond Earth and were not introduced here after the meteorites landed.

Hoover"concludes these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons and other astral bodies," said the study.

"The implications are that life is everywhere, and that life on Earth may have come from other planets."

The journal's editor-in-chief, Rudy Schild of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, hailed Hoover as a"highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA."

The publication invited experts to weigh in on Hoover's claim, and both sceptics and supporters began publishing their commentaries on the journal's website Monday.

"While the evidence clearly indicates that the meteorites was eons ago populated with bacterial life, whether the meteorites are of actual extra-terrestrial origin might debatable," wrote Patrick Godon of Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Michael Engel of the University of Oklahoma wrote:"Given the importance of this finding, it is essential to continue to seek new criteria more robust than visual similarity to clarify the origin(s) of these remarkable structures."

The journal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Pilcher described Hoover as a"NASA employee" who works in a solar physics branch of a NASA lab in the southeastern state of Alabama.

"He clearly does some very interesting microscopy. The actual measurements on these meteorites are very nice measurements, but I am not aware of any other qualification that Mr Hoover has in analysis of meteorites or in astrobiology," Pilcher said.

A NASA-funded study in December suggested that a previously unknown form of bacterium, found deep in a California lake, could thrive on arsenic, adding a new element to what scientists have long considered the six building blocks of life.

That study drew hefty criticism, particularly after NASA touted the announcement as evidence of extraterrestrial life. Scientists are currently attempting to replicate those findings.

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U.S. keeps oil options open as gasoline surges

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters)– The government reiterated on Sunday that it could tap its strategic oil reserves in order to safeguard economic growth as surging gasoline prices threaten to amp up pressure for action.

While longstanding U.S. policy is to release reserves only in the event of a significant and immediate supply shortage, some analysts say the Obama administration may feel compelled to try to tamp down prices that are being fueled both by outages in Libya as well as concerns over Middle East unrest.

Echoing comments made by a number of Obama officials over the past week, White House Chief of Staff William Daley told NBC television's"Meet the Press" on Sunday:"We are looking at the options. The issue of the reserves is one we are considering."

"It is something that only is done -- has been done -- in very rare occasions. There's a bunch of factors that have to be looked at and it is just not the price," he added."All matters have to be on the table when you go through -- when you see the difficulty coming out of this economic crisis we're in and the fragility of it."

He spoke just before a survey showed the second-largest two-week rise in gasoline pump prices ever. The national average for a gallon of self-serve, regular gas was$3.50 on March 4, according to the influential Lundberg Survey of about 2,500 gas stations, up 32.7 cents from the February 18.

Congress has pressured the Obama administration to look to the emergency oil supplies as an option to ease consumers' fears over rising U.S. gasoline prices, which are nearing the all-time high of$4.1124 per gallon hit on July 11, 2008, according to the Lundberg Survey.

Higher oil prices could undermine the fragile U.S. economic recovery and damage President Barack Obama politically as he moves toward a 2012 re-election bid.

2011 NOT 2008

The United States has tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which now holds 727 million barrels, only a handful of times since it was created in the mid-1970s after the Arab oil embargo. It was last used in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina.

Thus far the International Energy Agency (IEA) -- which coordinates reserves policy among the world's major energy consuming countries -- has made clear it will rely first on OPEC to fill the void left by the violence in Libya, which has cut off an estimated 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of output.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up production significantly, but oil prices remain high, partly due to intensifying fears that the wave of North African and Middle East protests could yet seep into major Gulf oil producers, cutting off supplies that would be impossible to make up from other producers.

Despite longstanding U.S. policy on the SPR, there are reasons to believe the reserves could be used more liberally now.

Unlike in 2008, when oil prices shot to nearly$150 a barrel in a demand-led rally, the current spike is driven by the real loss of supply -- a distinction which could give President Barack Obama more latitude to tap into the SPR, even though Libya ships only a fraction of its oil to U.S. shores.

In addition, the global economy is in a more precarious state than was generally believed at the start of 2008, prior to the financial crisis.

"Sovereign debt issues need time and growth to resolve. High oil prices threaten that outcome. No leader will want to preside over a recession that they had the tools to avert," said Lawrence Eagles, head of oil research at JP Morgan.

His outlook calls for a possible SPR release if Brent crude pushes materially above$120 a barrel. It settled on Friday at near$116, having jumped about 13 percent in two weeks.

U.S. federal law allows the government to tap the reserve during a national energy supply shortage that raises petroleum prices and could damage the economy. The president has the authority to determine such an emergency.

While the reserves could help make up for lost supplies, it is unclear how effective they would be in tempering fears that unrest could spread to other, bigger producers including Saudi Arabia, where security forces have detained at least 22 minority Shi'ites following protests last week.

OFFICIALS KEEP DOOR OPEN, DEMOCRATS PUSH

On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner played down the risks to the oil supply, but also reminded lawmakers of the emergency stockpile.

"If necessary, those reserves could be mobilized to help mitigate the effect of a severe, sustained supply disruption," Geithner told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But there has been growing support among Senate Democrats for tapping America's emergency oil supply.

Senator Jay Rockefeller last week urged Obama to allow a"limited drawdown" from the oil reserves to"protect our national security by preventing or reducing the adverse impact of an oil shortage.

But Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, speaking on CNN's"State of the Union" program on Sunday, said he would not support the oil reserve drawdown.

On Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu had ruled out releasing oil from the reserve, saying ramped-up oil production in Saudi Arabia should lower the crude price.

"We're hoping market forces will take care of this," he added.

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Tornado slams La. town, downed tree kills mother

RAYNE, La.– A tornado slammed a southwestern Louisiana town Saturday, killing a young mother who was sheltering her child and injuring 11 other people. More than 100 homes were damaged, many of them destroyed, authorities said, and about 1,500 people were evacuated because of natural gas leaks.

Maxine Trahan, a spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office, said 21-year-old Jalisa Granger was killed when a tree fell on her house.

"She sheltered the child to protect her from the storm and a tree fell on the house and it killed the mother but the child was OK,"Trahan said, adding that a relative who lived nearby found them.

Debris was littered throughout Rayne, a town of about 8,500 people, after a line of violent thunderstorms moved through the area and left behind a swath of damage about a quarter of a mile wide to three miles long.

Pieces of homes were strewn about the tops of trees, and power lines were down. A U.S. Postal Service truck was flipped to its side.

"It's a mess back there— a lot of damage,"Trahan said. The community is near Route 10 and about 70 miles west of Baton Rouge.

Trahan said the natural gas leaks, which were later fixed, delayed authorities trying to count how many homes and businesses were damaged. About 1,500 people were ordered out of the area for the night, she said, because officials feared more gas leaks could occur. A temporary shelter was set up at a fire station— about two dozen displaced persons were there Saturday night— and officials were working to find other shelters. A curfew was imposed for the storm-damaged area and will remain in effect until at least 6 a.m.

"There are houses off their foundations,"said State Police Trooper Stephen Hammons."There are houses that have been destroyed."

The National Weather Service sent a team to investigate and confirmed a tornado had struck the area.

The system that hit Rayne quickly moved east and drenched New Orleans, where several Mardi Gras parades either were delayed, started earlier or canceled because of the severe weather.

As the storm system moved east, it began to weaken but the weather service maintained tornado watches for south-central and southwest Alabama and northwest Florida, including Destin and Panama City, until 11 p.m. Eastern time.

Showers and thunderstorms were expected to move through the area, contributing to rough waters and dense fog in the early-morning hours.

"The thunderstorms are moving into increasingly stable air and they're getting a little weaker as they move east, particularly the ones above land,"NWS forecaster Mark Wool said Saturday evening.

Wool said the severe weather was caused by strong winds ahead of a cold front.

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Dark Energy: Astronomers Inch Toward Solving Space Riddle

You've probably never heard of a galaxy known as NGC 6264, and you've surely never given it a whole lot of thought. But the distant star cluster has just provided astronomers with new insight into one of the most mysterious forces in the universe.

To understand that force even a little, think about the last time you threw a baseball straight up in the air. What happened was what will always happen as long as you live on earth: gravity made the ball slow, stop and fall back to the ground. If you were born on the planet Krypton and landed here as a baby, the ball would reach escape velocity and shoot into outer space.(See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2010.)

Astronomers trying to understand the history of the universe have long thought of galaxies as huge, shiny baseballs. They were flung outward about 13 billion years ago, in the Big Bang; that's why the universe is expanding. But whether they would someday stop and reverse direction under their mutual gravity or keep going forever wasn't clear. To figure it out, two teams of observers decided more than a decade ago to look deep into the cosmic past, by comparing the velocity of extremely distant galaxies with that of closer ones. The farther you peer into space, the farther you peer back in time, and so if the more remote galaxies are flying apart faster than the close ones, that means the slowdown has already begun. If not, it will probably never happen.

To the astronomers' amazement, they found that the universe is actually expandingfasternow than it was billions of years ago. It's as though the baseball had a rocket attached. And the only plausible explanation was that some mysterious, invisible source of energy must be pushing the universe apart faster and faster all the time.

That mysterious force came to be known as dark energy, and to date nobody has figured out exactly what it is. All astronomers know is that dark energy seems to make up more than 70% of the matter-energy content of the universe. The rest is mostly the equally mysterious dark matter. Ordinary matter - the stuff that stars, planets and people are made of - amounts to a couple of percent at best. Theorists have advanced a bunch of competing ideas about the nature of dark energy - including Albert Einstein, who proposed a form of dark energy called the"cosmological constant"nearly 100 years ago. Even Einstein kept things pretty vague, venturing only that his constant would keep the force of repulsion the same everywhere in the universe - and that's as good a guess as we've had ever since.(See pictures of Albert Einstein.)

"Shake a tree full of theorists and 20 ideas will fall out,"is how Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., a co-discoverer of dark energy, described it to TIME in 2001. To figure out who's right will take a far more precise measurement than anyone has done to date.

That's why a new observation by scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in Virginia, could be so important. By linking a group of far-flung radio telescopes into a virtual telescope thousands of miles across, James Braatz and Cheng-Yu Kuo have measured the distance to galaxy NGC 6264 to an accuracy of 450 million light-years from Earth, give or take 9%.

That's crucial, because while it's simple to measure how fast a galaxy is moving, you also need to know exactly where it is. Imagine that a car is accelerating toward you, and you want to know when it will zip by. To calculate that, you need to know not only how fast it's going at any given moment, but also how far away it is.(Read"Dark Matter: New Evidence on How Galaxies Are Born.")

Astronomers already have ways of measuring distance, but they're based on a system of steps. The first is a direct measurement of the distance to a nearby cosmic object using the same parallax method sailors use. Next, that measurement is used to gauge the distance to farther objects, which are used in turn to measure still farther ones, and so on. Each of these steps introduces errors, so it would be better to measure distant galaxies directly.

That's what Braatz and Kuo have done. They've homed in on the black hole at the core of NGC 6264 - or more precisely, the disk of gas that swirls around it before being sucked into oblivion. Water molecules in the disk act as natural masers - essentially, they're lasers that transmit in radio frequencies rather than visible light. With those masers acting as beacons, the astronomers used a single radio telescope to figure out the actual size of the disk. Then they used their virtual radio to measure its apparent size - how tiny it looks at such an enormous distance. It's something like knowing the real size of a silver dollar, seeing how big it appears across a field, then asking yourself,"How far away would it have to be to seem that small?"(Comment on this story.)

This isn't the first time Braatz and Kuo have performed this trick, but it's the farthest galaxy they've attempted to survey."We have another six or so in the can,"says Braatz,"and we ultimately want 10 or so."It's also not the most precise measurement ever made: the old-fashioned, step-by-step technique is accurate to within 6%. Ultimately, though, Braatz hopes to get the new method down to 3% accuracy."It's hard work,"he admits."There's no guarantee we can do it."

If they can, though, it will bring theorists a step closer to understanding what dark energy really is - and maybe even vindicating Einstein. That would be ironic. Back in the 1920s, Einstein abandoned the concept of the cosmological constant, calling it"the greatest blunder of my life."If dark energy really does match his long-ago idea, his greatest blunder could also turn out to be his final triumph.

See amazing pictures of the sun.

See"The Hubble Space Telescope's Greatest Hits."

View this article onTime.com

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New Zombie-Ant Fungi Found

The world just got a little weirder: Scientists have identified four new species of brain-controlling fungi that turn ants into zombies that do the parasite's bidding before it kills them.

Identified from samples collected at two sites in Brazil's tropical rain forest, each of the four species specializes in controlling a different species of carpenter ant.

The original zombie-ant fungus,Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, was first identified in 1865, and it seems to exist around the world. {Mind-Controlling Parasites Date Back Millions of Years}

"So we knew, right off the bat, there was a range of other species within that," said study researcher David Hughes, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University."I think it will turn out to be in the hundreds."

Once it infects an ant, the fungus uses as-yet-unidentified chemicals to control the ant's behavior, Hughes told LiveScience. It directs the ant to leave its colony (a very un-ant-like thing to do) and bite down on the underside of a leaf— the ant's soon-to-be resting place. Once it is killed by the fungus, the ant remains anchored in place, thanks to its death grip on the leaf.

Ultimately, the fungus produces a long stalk that protrudes from the ant's head, shooting spores out in the hopes of infecting other ants. Two of the four newly discovered species also sprouted smaller stalks elsewhere, including from the victim's feet and lower leg joints– the equivalent of knees.

The spores of the four species also had distinct features and germination processes.

Hughes is concerned that one of the four fungus species,O. camponoti-novogranadensis, may not be around for much longer. During their visits to Brazil, Hughes and his colleagues saw that the high-elevation site where the species was found had become markedly drier and hotter. Hughes attributed the change in conditions at the Parque Estadual de Itacolomi, which is near the World Heritage Site Ouro Preto,to global warming.

The ants can survive this shift in the local climate, but"the fungus can't," he said."What we think we will see is the extinction event of the fungus we just managed to describe." (Hughes said fungi are essential aquatic organisms living in terrestrial environments, making them extra-sensitive to a drying climate.)

The research by Hughes and colleagues Simon Elliot and Harry Evans appears online today (March 2) in the journal PLoS ONE.

You can followLiveSciencewriter Wynne Parry on Twitter@Wynne_Parry.

• The 10 most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites
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Discovery Astronauts Upgrade Space Station in Final Spacewalk

This story was updated at 5:55 p.m. ET.

HOUSTON– Two Discovery shuttle astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on one last spacewalk today (March 2) to help prime the orbiting lab for the years ahead after NASA's shuttle fleet retires.

Astronauts Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew tackled a laundry list of space maintenance task outside the space station, overcoming delays from a minor spacesuit leak and a helmet light malfunctions in the process.

The first glitch popped up before the spacewalk even began.

Theleak in Bowen's spacesuitoccurred before the spacewalkers opened the station's airlock hatch. It was traced to a faulty seal on a air-scrubbing lithium hydroxide canister. Once the seal was replaced, Bowen and Drew officially started the spacewalk– the second one planned for Discovery's mission– at 10:42 a.m. EST (1542 GMT). By then, they were running 25 minutes late. {Infographic: Spacesuits Through the Years}

Today's excursion was the second and last planned spacewalk duringDiscovery's STS-133 mission– the orbiter's final flight before being retired. Bowen and Drew successfully completed one prior spacewalk on Monday (Feb. 28).

This is Discovery's final mission before being retired later this year. NASA only has two more shuttle flights planned, one each for the Endeavour and Atlantis orbiters, before shutting down the program. The remaining flights are delivering the vital spare parts NASA needs to the station going once the shuttle program ends.

Upgrading the space station

Once the spacewalkers got to work, the orbital day went fairly smoothly.

Drew immediately began venting toxic ammonia from a failed cooling pump module that he and Bowen had moved to an external stowage platform on their previous spacewalk. One of Bowen's main duties was to remove an experiment panel from the outside of thestation's Columbus laboratory.

Bowen rode on the end of the station's robotic arm to retrieve the panel and attach it to the inside of the shuttle Discovery's payload bay. The panel will be returned to Earth at the end of Discovery's STS-133 mission.

"Awesome job to the whole team. You made it look simple," said astronaut Tim Kopra, who supported the spacewalk from Mission Control here at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Kopra was set to be a mission specialist and lead spacewalker for the STS-133 mission, but wasreplaced by Bowen after being injuredin a bicycle accident just over a month before launch.

The spacewalkers completed various other tasks for the station's upkeep, including removing thermal coverings, attaching camera lens covers and adjusting loose radiator grapple beams that had been improperly installed during a previous shuttle mission.

It was while the spacewalk passed the five-hour mark, when the second glitch occurred. The helmet-mounted lights on Drew's spacesuit came loose. Mission Control told Drew to put until Bowen made his float by to try and fix light attachment, but it was hopeless.

"That's not going to work," Bowen said."I'm sorry, Al."

Discovery's last spacewalk

Bowen re-entered the airlock and the astronauts switched the batteries of their suits off at 4:56 p.m. EST (2156 GMT), marking the end of the day's excursion. The total duration of today's spacewalk was six hours and 14 minutes.

"Thank all you guys for the good, quick reaction, we really appreciate it," Mission Control radioed to the spacewalkers after Bowen was unable to reattach Drew's helmet lights."You guys look great out there."

The spacewalkers completed a few other tasks for the space station's upkeep, including removing thermal covers, attaching camera lens covers and adjusting loose radiator supports that weren't installed properly during a previous shuttle mission.

"You are the man," astronaut Nicole Stott, who was directing the spacewalkers from inside Discovery's mid-deck, radioed to Drew, after he was able to tighten the beams.

"Houston agrees– Al is the man," Kopra replied from the ground.

Bowen and Drew also took breaks from the work to take pictures of the Earth below, including the Caribbean islands and areas around their Florida launch site, where they blasted into space five days earlier.

"We're all very proud of you guys here in Houston," Kopra said at the end of the spacewalk.

Today's outing was Bowen's seventh spacewalk and Drew's second time venturing outside of the space station.

You can follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechowas she covers Discovery's final space voyage from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage ofDiscovery's final mission STS-133.

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• Infographic: Spacesuit Science: Cosmic Apparel Through the Years

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U.S. Government Medical Experiments of the Recent Past Revealed

Revelations of medical experiments dating from the 1920s to the 1960s conducted by the U.S. government medical community and scientific researchers came to light Sunday in anarticleby Associated Press reporter Mike Stobbe. The history of these experiments is the topic of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, convened by President Barack Obama.

Medical experiments and research were conducted on disabled, mentally ill and incarcerated people in various studies through the decades, reportsPBS Newshour. Not only were America's own citizens used for these experiments, but during the 1940s, hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners were given syphilis. This information came to light in October 2010, at which time the U.S. government issued a formal apology and necessitated the Monday convening of the bioethics commission.

The Guatemalan experiment brings to mind the infamous Tuskegee experiment that left nearly 400 Alabama sharecroppers unknowingly untreated for syphilis. One doctor in the experiment remarked that the men were no longer of use for him until they died -- the point of that experiment was to glean what information science could from the autopsies of these afflicted men.

Stobbe's research into the information of these government-funded studies began back in October 2010, when the Guatemalan experiment came to light. In his research, Stobbe discovered more than 40 such research/studies that made use of American citizens in positions least likely to be able to deny consent or understand what was being done to them. When researchers ran out of study participants within the U.S., they went abroad to find test subjects.

Famous names in research were involved in some of these experiments, including Jonas Salk, who discovered the polio vaccine. The experiment in which he was involved began in 1942 and involved giving an untested flu vaccine to men living in a state insane asylum in Michigan. These men were later exposed to the flu virus to determine the efficacy of the vaccine. Some of the men were so highly impaired that they couldn't explain their symptoms to the researchers.

In the 1940s and 1950s, it was common practice in America to use prisoners as test subjects; the 1960s saw at least half the states still allowing the practice reportsNews-Sentinel.com. By the 1970s, public opinion changed and in 1973 in a congressional hearing, pharmaceutical manufacturers testified that it was cheaper for them to use prisoners in studies than it was to use chimpanzees. This led to reform in the federal prison system; no longer were prisoners to be used in medical experiments or research.

Pharmaceutical companies took their studies abroad. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 40 percent to 65 percent of clinical studies are now done outside the United States. Less than 1 percent of those are ever inspected by U.S. regulators.

One of the difficulties is the importance of scientific research so that new drugs can be developed and come to the market. Through the years, the U.S. government and its citizens have demonstrated varying tolerances for research ethics. The presidential bioethics commission has announced the formation of a 13-member international panel of scientific experts to study the ethics of medical research worldwide, reportsYahoo! News.

In the coming months, expect the commission's report on the Guatemalan experiment and the international committee's report on bioethics around the globe.

Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of"The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense

solutions.

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