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back to article Glass door to the ancient past FOUND ON MARS

Rock-boffins have used data from satellites to scope out impact-crater glass on Mars for a glimpse into its past, based on the theory that glass formed during hypervelocity happenings can encapsulate and preserve earthly bio-signatures. A study lead by Brown University's Peter Schultz found that organic matter, including plant …

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  1. bharq
    Gimp

    Welcome

    I for one welcome our glass-embedded overl...

    wait a minute. Already captured in glass?

    HAH, YOU TINY MISERABLE CREATURE - TREMBLE BEFORE ME, FOR I'VE GOT YOU IN MY POWER!!!

    20 0 Reply
  2. Pen-y-gors

    Rock-boffin?

    Now that's a pretty cool job title!

    4 0 Reply
    1. Bob Wheeler
      Reply Icon

      Re: Rock-boffin?

      What next, a Rock-Chick Boffin?

      0 0 Reply
      1. craigb
        Reply Icon

        Re: Rock-boffin?

        FTFY Rock-Chic Boffin

        0 0 Reply
        1. Dave 126 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Rock-boffin?

          [ image of Jack Black standing in front of a blackboard on which the words Zeppelin, Floyd, Sabbath and others are written ]

          7 0 Reply
        2. AbelSoul
          Reply Icon
          Coat

          Re: Rock-Chic Boffin?

          In certain parts of the country Rock-Chic Boffin is considered a participatory sport.

          Aherm, apologies - mine's the one with the Bernard Manning joke book in the pocket.

          2 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      For the next kareoke evening, The B-52s "Rock Boffin"

      We were all on Mars (Eww)

      Everybody had matching helms (Eww)

      Somebody went under the dome (Eww)

      And there they saw a rock (Eww)

      It wasn't a rock (Eww)

      Was a rock boffin! (Eww)

      Aaaah Rock boffin

      Aaaah Rock boffin

      Rock bof-fuh-fin!

      Rock bof-fuh-fin!

      (the pub will never know, or want to know, what hit it)

      9 0 Reply
  3. magickmark
    Alien

    Cthulhu commeth!

    "A study lead by Brown University's Peter Schultz found that organic matter, including plant matter, was entombed by molten glass formed in asteroid and comet impacts occurring millions of years ago in Argentina."

    Interesting, H.P. Lovecraft used Brown University as the inspiration for the Miskatonic University, maybe the stars are right?

    4 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Better than Carbonite

    "If you had an impact that dug in and sampled that subsurface environment, it’s possible that some of it might be preserved in a glassy component," Mustard said.

    Sampled with extreme prejudice.

    3 0 Reply
  5. frank ly

    Picture Caption

    How do they know there are algae in the crater?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Paul Kinsler
      Reply Icon

      Re: How do they know there are algae in the crater?

      They don't ... but if there was, a bloody great rock landed on its head, and then entombed it in glass - it sure as hell wasn't going to move very far after all that!

      2 0 Reply
    2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov
      Reply Icon

      Re: Picture Caption

      "How do they know there are algae in the crater?"

      They don't. They were only sure about at least one alga being there...

      1 0 Reply
  6. Little Mouse

    Fingers crossed

    I'm hoping for trapped parasitic martian mosquito-esque organisms within the soon-to-be-discovered glass, still containing the martian DNA (or equivalent) of the mighty beasts that no doubt used to wander the red plains in vast herds / packs.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Bob Dole (tm)
      Reply Icon

      Re: Fingers crossed

      Jurassic Park in SPAAAAAAAAACE!!

      2 0 Reply
    2. Muscleguy
      Reply Icon

      Re: Fingers crossed

      Even entombed in glass DNA still continues to degrade and break down. Jurassic park is and pretty much always will be scifi, with emphasis on the fi. In the lab dna is kept at -20C, though if it is genomic in scale and you do not want it fragmented you might keep it at 4C. Though not for tens of millions of years. I know we are pushing ancient DNA ages backwards but the quality you get back is not good, it is better than nowt but compared to fresh sample sequencing and DNA assembly it is very, vary hard to do. Not all fresh genomes are easy either, our youngest has been trying assemble a mollusc genome and it is proving anything but easy.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Chris 239
        Reply Icon

        Re: Fingers crossed

        Wow. My youngest is finding it anything but easy to assemble a meccano toy, yours is assembling a genome? What? your youngest isn't 5 yrs old?

        4 0 Reply
  7. Morrie Wyatt
    Holmes

    Cluedo

    So, it was Mustard on Mars with the Meteor what dun it!

    (Icon seems the obvious one here.)

    5 0 Reply
  8. bob, mon!
    FAIL

    Love thatfirst paragraph.

    "Rock-boffins have used data from satellites to scope out impact-crater glass on Mars for a glimpse into its past, based on the theory that glass formed during hypervelocity happenings can encapsulate and preserve earthly bio-signatures."

    At first I thought they were claiming that glass on Mars preserved Earthly biosignatures. Say wha'???

    0 0 Reply

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