The first British woman to space is a <can't say>

[phinds]

Sigh ...

Best statement "... although aliens may not be made up of carbon and nitrogen like humans "it's possible they're here right now and we simply can't see them". "

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51003374

 

[jedishrfu]

Ahh, the storyline behind so many sci-fi shows.

 

[chemisttree]

Go on! SAY IT!

She’s a CHEMIST! CHEMIST! CHEMIST!

 

[phinds]

Go on! SAY IT!

She’s a CHEMIST! CHEMIST! CHEMIST!

Yeah ... that's not really what I had in mind

 

[DaveE]

That sounds like a quote out of context to me.

Life somewhere in the universe is a possibility that is hard to refute; we all just don't know. Saying that it's possible that they are here isn't literally incorrect. She may have been exaggerating to emphasize a point.

In any case, I'm not impressed with the journalism on display. Outrageous claims should elicit further explanation.

 

[DaveE]

Remember that it wasn't until the 1970's that we knew about Archaea here on earth. A 3rd domain of life that is not uncommon.

 

[PeroK]

She's sponsored by the Men in Black franchise, I believe.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Her comments are not actually that far from what some other scientists have thought. For example, along the lines of @DaveE's comment, the topic was discussed at the 2015 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes the journal Science):

If we came across alien life, would we even know it was alive? That was a central question posed at a session here yesterday at the annual meeting of AAAS (which publishes Science). All known life on Earth fits a particular mold, but life from other planets might break free from that mold, making it difficult for us to identify. We could even be oblivious to unfamiliar forms of life right under our noses.

All life as we know it follows a standard protocol, known as the “central dogma,” using DNA and RNA to store genetic information, and translating that into proteins. And all living things rely on the same handful of chemical elements. So, when searching for life in remote or extreme environments scientists typically look for signs of the kind of life we’re familiar with. But, “if we have other organisms out there that do things just slightly differently, we might miss the boat,” geobiologist Victoria Orphan of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena told attendees.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...-be-hiding-strange-life-right-under-our-noses

I don't think it's likely that there is some shadow biosphere of "alien" life on Earth, but I don't think we can formally rule out the possibility.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Yeah, her statement doesn't sound terribly contentious to me. There's no need to read reptilians-brand crackpottery into it.

 

[phinds]

What I find contentious (and beyond) is that she suggests that they may be here on Earth right now. I think that's total nonsense. I mean, really? ... aliens that are invisible to us have traveled here from who knows where but we're not aware of it because they're invisible?

 

[Bandersnatch]

I think this is less about invisible aliens in invisible spaceships and more about what we consider life and whether we would recognise a truly alien one if we stumbled upon it, including one that has always been here.

 

[BillTre]

What I find contentious (and beyond) is that she suggests that they may be here on Earth right now. I think that's total nonsense. I mean, really? ... aliens that are invisible to us have traveled here from who knows where but we're not aware of it because they're invisible?

I would think not so much invisible, but unnoticed.
Who would notice a bacteria like thing in some out of the way place?
At first it would be indistinguishable from bacteria or archaea and would probably require a molecular biology type analysis to show it is not bacteria or archaea.

As many have said, it might have come from Mars via a meteorite lofted up by an impact there, something many people consider a not-completely-ruled-out hypothesis.

To me, the statement is off the cuff and provocative, but not fully woo. (Maybe she's writing a book).

Of course after people (or machines) return from Mars, the likelihood of an (accidental) human assisted transfer from Mars will go up. Similarly, these could be undetected, at least for a while (Andromeda Strain scenario).

 

[phinds]

I may be over-interpreting in taking her statement as being about aliens who came here in a spaceship. That sort of nonsense raises my hackles so I'm prone to over-react when I hear it, or think I have.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

When the general public thinks of alien life, they think of little green men in spaceships. When scientists think of alien life, we're probably envisioning small, single-celled microorganisms (which would be invisible to the naked eye). That's probably the disconnect that's at the root of the confusion.

 

[BillTre]

I may be over-interpreting in taking her statement as being about aliens who came here in a spaceship.

That was my first thought, but it depends on the meaning you take from the words used.
There may have been more in the context of whatever the media said she said (which I have not actually seen), explaining she wasn't talking about flying saucers. Or maybe not?