[Aroid-l] Fungus Article Author

From: ted.held at us.henkel.com on 2007.05.25 at 12:44:53(15714) All, I got a reply from Arturo Casadeva, the last author listed on the article and a faculty member of Albert Einstein. He said, simply, that he was an author and he stands by the content of the article. +More Maybe "hoax" was too strong a word. Wrong science does not need a dishonest or even a conscious motivation to give a false impression. The trouble with publications that are not peer reviewed is that there are no annoying people like me to put the writings under scrutiny before they are unleashed on the world. The media loves fringe science because it makes for sensational copy. Like cold fusion. It could be that these organisms are existing in areas where the radiation level is high, but not anywhere near what might exist within the Chernobyl reactor itself. When I tried to click through the reference stated in the article introduction for this information the source was not there. As far as the use of ionizing radiation as an energy source, my skepticism would focus on how much energy is generated by this surmised mechanism. Is it enough to sustain the organism? Or is it just a tiny blip in the energetic state of melanin that may or may not be utilized for life functions? I would guess that any number of chemical compounds would be boosted to a higher energy state when subjected to ionizing radiation. That's what radiation does when it slams into something; the energy gets transferred to whatever gets bombarded. Ted, inveterate skeptic._______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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