September 12, UFO researcher and journalist Jaime Morsan has presented what he claims is evidence of extraterrestrial life to the Mexican Congress. On September 19, Mexico’s scientific community met for a conference and asked a simple question: “Extraterrestrial life or a llama skeleton?”
The answer was in the subtitle of the conference itself. “Science caters to charlatans and the gullible.” If Mosão shocked Mexico and the world with his outlandish claims, it was Mexico’s scientific community that fought back. Towards the end of the conference, Alejandro Frank, professor of mathematical physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and event organizer, summed up: It’s sad that we come together to talk about the misdeeds of professional charlatans, starting with climate change, wars, and pandemics. ”
Frank said the scientists did not meet to discuss Morsan’s “decades of ridiculous conspiracy theories,” but rather to discuss where Morsan had made his latest outlandish claims. Ta. Morsan’s appearance in the Mexican Congress “turned the world upside down” and scientific rationality in Mexico became an object of ridicule, Frank argued. “The question here is whether our country follows science or superstition and quackery.”
Although Morsan’s claims of extraterrestrial life are laughable, the risks to science in Mexico and around the world are serious. Frank pointed to the polarization of Mexican politics, especially around pressing issues like the climate crisis, as a particularly worrying example of the already tarnished scientific reputation of the country. In the wake of the alien fiasco, Frank called on Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology to speak out and take action. “Authorities have remained silent about the facts surrounding the Nazca mummies, which are becoming increasingly famous as the ‘Mummy of Mexico.'”
José Franco, a researcher at UNAM’s Institute of Astronomy, opened the conference with a presentation titled “Life in the Universe”, talking about DNA and RNA, interstellar chemistry, the radio spectrum of the KL Orion nebula, and cloverleaf quasars. Did.
He spoke about extraterrestrial biology, the field that studies the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Direct exploration of microorganisms in celestial bodies. Meteorite, Moon, Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Venus. He also spoke about humanity’s indirect search for extraterrestrial life, a message sent by the Arecibo telescope. Pioneer nameplate. Voyager 1 and 2 golden records.Message sent from Ukraine Gliese 581c, 2008, A planet with some conditions similar to Earth. And also in 2008, another transmission of the Beatles song “Across the Universe” took place. star polaris.
“Hayabusa2 was sent to the asteroid Ryugu, returned to Earth and is already in the hands of Japanese scientists and NASA,” Franco said. He mentioned the OSIRIS-REX sample collection mission, which collected about 250 grams of debris from the asteroid. He also mentioned the nine probes sent to Mars, including the famous Perseverance. “No life forms have been found anywhere, and no information has been found in Congress,” Franco joked.
Philosophy of science researcher Gabriela Frias described the recent events in Mexico’s Congress as “pseudoscientific events that appeal to our fantasies, desires, and fears.” During his presentation, Morsan pointed to the “carbon-14 analysis” that UNAM scientists conducted on the Nazca mummies. Morsan claimed this, in part, as evidence that he was presenting himself as an “inhuman being.” UNAM has since distanced itself from “any subsequent use, interpretation or misrepresentation of the results”.
UNAM said in a statement that it is essential that the search for extraterrestrial life be undertaken “with the support of scientific research institutions and in accordance with the strict ethical standards inherent in research.” Morsan’s appearance in Congress was the exact opposite.