Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars

http://www.thinkgene.com/scientists-confirm-that-parts-of-earliest-genetic-material-may-have-come-from-the-stars/

by motoko • 18 years ago

13 6 18 years ago

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

Is anyone else bothered by the use of "confirm" and "may" in the same sentence? If it's confirmed, it is, not may be, right?

LPTS• 18 years ago

Not at all.

If I am trying to reverse engineer a bread recipe, and find CO2, I will have confirmed yeast may have been used.

It's logically equivalent to "Scientists confirmed yeast could not be ruled out." That happens all the time. There is absolutely nothing to be bothered by. Running an experiment and getting a maybe is important and valid scientific information.

motoko• 18 years ago

Personally, yes. But this is standard scientific nomenclature.

Mystalic• 18 years ago

Off topic, but this story was added a day ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216861

Usually HN filters out repeats, but not this time. Very strange and interesting.

FiReaNG3L• 18 years ago

Yup, but on a different site; it's a press release. I find funny that in my submission people were complaining that I removed the 'may' part of the title; in this one, people are complaining of the opposite ;)

louislouis• 18 years ago

We are aliens?

Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars

Related Stories