ALH84001

Peter A. Taylor
7 Aug 2003

This is a filk song about the famous Mars meteorite from Alan Hills, Antarctica, which generated a great deal of controversy due to the presence of what many scientists believed were nanofossils.

To the tune of "I Stole the Prince,"
from The Gondoliers, by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Blanket permission is hereby given to reproduce this song, with attribution.

I found the rock and I brought it here
and I left it gently resting
with a highly respected geologist
with a globally known distribution list
to find any interesting facts I'd missed
with his own peculiar testing.

Carbonate globules surely did sprout,
abiotic or biotic, whether.

Of that there is no manner of doubt,
no probable possible shadow of doubt
no possible doubt whatever.

But owing, of exobiology,
to our ignorance colossal,
that highly respected geologist
and scanning electron microscopist
could never convince a biologist
that he'd found a nanofossil.

Are those biofilms? The jury's still out.
Slice your samples off wherever.

Of that there is no manner of doubt,
no probable possible shadow of doubt
no possible doubt whatever.

Time sped, and when at the end of some years,
I sought academic consensus
that highly respected geologist,
with magnetite nodules clenched in his fist,
had never achieved the agreement he wished
though his filament clusters impressed us.

Both of the theories carry great clout
Ockham's razor can not them sever.

Of that there is no manner of doubt,
no probable possible shadow of doubt
no possible doubt whatever.

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