Hi Mike, You bring up a valid and accurate point. Private sector
meteorite hunters have provided meteorites for study for decades, and
have grown institutional collections ever bigger over the years. Many
privately funded meteorite hunters have supplied thousands upon
thousands of meteorites to both institutions and the private sector for
study and collection. Many thousands of meteorites have been discovered,
recovered, classified, studied, analyzed, and new scientific discoveries
have been made as a result. It really feels good to be a part of
discovery, and the science. To get people involved at a grassroots level
is what will grow this science and lead to more discoveries. There's
nothing like meteorite hunting!
Yay for private sector meteorite hunters!
Regards,
Eric
On 8/25/2010 8:50 AM, Galactic Stone & Ironworks wrote:
Hi List,
I don't want to re-open the debate between science and laymen over the
involvement of private meteorite hunters. But I think something
should be pointed out in regards to the recent development about the
age of the solar system (story linked below). This story is a perfect
example of how private involvement can benefit meteoritics and science
as a whole. This NWA meteorite has yielded some potentially-valuable
data, and the stone was made available by private nomad hunters and
private collector/dealers. Without private involvement, this
meteorite would still be laying undiscovered in the desert and
possibly buried forever by the marching dunes, or left to suffer the
fate of terrestrialization as a part of desert pavement. It's a fun
and positive thing that laymen can become involved in science in an
indirect way that produces real results. And this is also another
example of how find coordinates for some meteorites is secondary to
more important secrets the specimens hold. In this particular case,
the find coordinates are not fundamental to the discovery.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=meteorite-nugget-pushes-back-age-of-2010-08-23
Best regards,
MikeG
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