The result of this study is the full conviction that, at least in these structures, we are really dealing with the remnants of corals, most of which belong to the Favositidae, a family that has so far only been found as fossils in the Paleozoic, the ancient layers of Earth.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 16, Article 1

And also,

Well-preserved forms are, of course, quite rare; it is mostly debris, e.g. quite similar to that observed in young ocean limestone of the Mexican Gulf. After acquiring some practice and comparing many cuts, certain recurring forms can be restored quite easily. Especially developed are the sponges of which I have already determined three specific genera.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 16, Article 1

Reading this in Das Ausland must have ruffled the feathers of directors of zoology and paleontology, especially coming from Weinland, who responded to Anton Rzehak’s criticism with:

This may still seem like a venturesome statement today, but my peers, who have known me for twenty-five years, will probably know that I do not easily pronounce my conviction.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 26, Article 1

And indeed, Weinland went on to express his conviction by establishing in a treatise 16 genera each with multiple species, submitting his work to the Leopoldina and Acta, and proclaiming that:

Not ten years will pass before we will have a small universally recognized fauna of the meteorites.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 26, Article 1

Certainly this is a fascinating story and a book worthy of reading! And regarding Hahn’s ideas about the iron meteorites, you will want to research the ironically named Chondrites.

Read: The Meteorite (Chondrite) and its Organisms

Read: Das Ausland Articles

Fred Hoyle’s IFS Lecture December 1982

Microfossils and Biomolecules in Meteorites – Dr. Richard B. Hoover

This video by Dr. Richard B. Hoover points at why I am so interested in meteorites. Imagine if Dr. Hoover is correct and that life pervades the universe, or even lets say a large galaxy and/or group of galaxies. This is a viable outcome of nature and follows from simple exponential growth given a time span on a scale of billions of years. As long as life has evolved to be able to travel the vast distances between stars this is a simple and interesting hypothesis. But we are of course mostly interested in complex life — we are scanning right now for complex information signals in all numbers of frequencies when all we have to do is study the meteorites already in our possession. If the universe is filled with single cell life forms, it would suggest that the potential of life to manifest itself in form/energy/matter such as humans or dinosaurs, etc.. exists as a latent potential throughout the region of the universe inhabited by these life forms. And complex life arises almost immediately when a new planet or moon with suitable conditions arises. This would basically be the answer to the Drake Equation. It is highly likely that there are other complex lifeforms. We now would feel confident to search for complex life signatures because we know now that the universe is filled with simple life and primitive multicelluar life like trilobites, dinosaurs, mammals, etc… So now the ultimate question would seem to be where did the first evolution of these organisms arise? In our galaxy? the Andromeda galaxy? Where exactly are Earth’s lifeforms on this larger tree of life? Reality is starting to seem like something out of a science fiction book. Of course this is just one possible speculative scenario. I can imagine others.

Note, I have been photographing meteorites in cross polarized light for the past few years; including CO type meteorites. You can see my work at Solar Anamnesis.

Also consider reading these articles:

Claims of Indigenous Life Forms in Meteorites: A Short Review

Chandra Wickramasinghe Testimony

… the non-coding sequences have certain statistical features in common with natural and artificial languages. Specifically, we adapt to DNA the Zipf approach to analyzing linguistic texts. These statistical properties of non-coding sequences support the possibility that non-coding regions of DNA may carry biological information.

With that quote in mind, consider that Francis Crick suggested in 1975 that life on Earth could have been the result of “Directed Panspermia.”

Also, check out Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge for Jeremy Narby’s thoughts on this subject.

Messages in DNA? Directed Panspermia? Great ideas for a science fiction movie, yes! But unless scientists find evidence that life definitely arose on Earth through natural processes, then these ideas can and should be considered legitimate hypotheses — they both can be refuted by evidence showing that they are false.

Let’s entertain the rather wild possibility that the information contained in these non-coding regions may in fact be information encoded in the DNA by an advanced “thing” which purposely sent life to Earth. This would suggest the question: “At what level of development did cells and bacteria arrive on Earth?” Fully developed with DNA, ribosomes, and protein synthesis? Or, perhaps just DNA contained in a capsule?

If an advanced intelligence wanted to send a message to be received by an organism which eventually developed enough ability to discover this message, how would it do this? What would the message be? What would be the context of the message?

Would it be possible to encode a message as “form” in matter. By form, I mean something like studying the processes and relationships of molecular biology, for instance see: The Molecular Basis of Life. The incredible form of the DNA transcription; the fascinating ability of the kinesin protein to travel microtubules; could these forms and relationships be the message? If the context is biological travel in space, might these cellular forms and relationships be teaching us how to expand and develop in space?

But a message based on form seems to be invalid because it is the non-coding regions of DNA which are not expressed in protein structures that contain the statistical properties of Zipf. However, I think we still have much to learn about DNA and its interactions with the rest of the cell which may change the way we view DNA. It just seems hard for me to understand how 1,000,000 specially crafted objects (proteins) of various shapes thrown in a zero gravity room together could somehow bounce and collide to eventually create an organized dynamic transport mechanism across that same room — not to mention the dozens of other cellular processes. So, where does the form of cellular processes arise?

These thoughts came as I was watching 3D animations of kinesin protein travel along microtubules. Perhaps we could design a sort of kinesin vehicle which would travel along a microtubule connection from the Earth to Moon? Or, they could serve as connections between asteroid space bases suspended in the Lagrangian points. No need for rocket fuel, it would be similar to magnetic trains. What would it imply if an idea for space travel and transport could be found inside the cell?

It is surprising to me that man’s awareness of meteorites as being “rocks from space” is relatively recent (early 1900’s). There have been numerous “witnessed falls” throughout written history; however, the association of these heavenly phenomena (meteors) with solid iron and rocky objects was almost non-existent. Instead they were commonly regarded as apparitions much like rainbows. This explains the existence of several English words which are all related to these objects, their atmospheric interaction and their final discovery as a rock like object — i.e., a meteoroid becomes a meteor which becomes a meteorite. The realization that meteors are formed by space rocks began the “meteorite rush.”

The search for specimens was initially done by a small group of people, and in some cases a single man, Harvey Nininger; Nininger was as American meteorite pioneer in the early/middle part of the 20th century. He raised awareness and spent his entire life devoted to meteorite hunting and study. After Nininger, Robert Haag became the most widely known meteorite hunter and collector in America. Now scientific teams and other meteorite hunters all over the world are providing vast numbers of finds in the Antarctic and in various deserts spanning the globe.

For my first book by Stephen Jay Gould, I randomly chose Bully for Brontosaurus. This collection of essays provides thought provoking stories in human and biological history. I look forward to reading more of Gould’s works.

The Road to Reality, by Roger Penrose, despite being a weighty book, provides a full summary of the mathematics and physics of the modern era. The book should provide an enjoyable read for those adept in mathematics and physics.