This notion has been around for a long time. I remember hearing Richard Hoagland say it many times on Coast to Coast AM. But now we have “science” (goofy face here) intervening.  It was also a sub-plotline in The Facade.

The Mysterious Universe blog recently posted an essay entitled, “Mars Could be the Father of Life on Mother Earth.” To quote the essay, there has been a recent interest in:

Clay extracted from a meteorite of martian origin collected in Antarctica has proven to contain high concentrations of boron. Oxidized boron, or borates, are thought to be among the stuff that led to the formation of RNA.

Let’s think about this a little. Boron is found naturally on earth in trace quantities. Statistically….

Abundance earth’s crust: 10 parts per million by weight, 1 part per million by moles

Abundance solar system: 2 parts per billion by weight, 0.2 parts per billion by moles

Boron does not occur naturally in “pure, elemental form” but must be isolated and extracted. The news of the martian meteorite is the high concentration.

Just in case a reader of the Mysterious Universe piece might be thinking that this discovery in Antarctica means earth’s boron came from Mars, and therefore life on earth came from Mars, we get this penetrating analysis point:

While this doesn’t necessarily mean martian meteorites provided the borate which led to the rise of RNA on Earth, it doesn’t rule it out either.

Wow. Thanks, Einstein. “Just because we can’t prove our theory doesn’t mean you can disprove it.” Brilliant. Now it’s up to people to disprove something that isn’t proven. That used to be called the fallacy of trying to prove a negative. I guess it’s scientific thinking in this case. So then why make a news story? I’m guessing many readers will know the answer to that.

While we’re on logic, can anyone spot a logical leap in the idea? (I should give awards or something for stuff like this).  If Boron is already on earth in trace amounts (in lots of places), then why are we asking whether Mars is the source of the boron that led to life on earth? How about another one. Is it possible that many or all of the planets in our solar system have boron? Now, if only Mars and Earth did, that would make for a good chicken or egg question, but until we know they are the only two contenders, it’s quite possible that the planets in our solar system have boron from a common source out there somewhere. That would mean there was actually no direct panspermic (I think I just made up a word) causation from Mars to Earth — the “seeding” idea would be much grander, especially in the context of a big bang (which, for you militant atheists out there, isn’t a theological problem for lots of Jews, Christians, and Muslims).

It’s just panspermia folks; nothing new here.