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[Fwd: O'Keefe]

In light of James Tobin's last post, Martin has requested that I forward
his earlier response to me.

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JJ wrote:

To Martin: You stated, " Although he is  (O'Keefe) in disagreement with
most others about the origin of Tektites, his science and descriptive works
are excellent."  I am sure I am reading your statement incorrectly ( and
admittedly, I have not read O'Keefe).   You are not suggesting that his
work is of lesser quality simply because it is unpopular?

JJ,

In no way am I making a judgment upon the work of others. Science is a
process, and one must never forget that evidence in contradiction to
current beliefs must cause the belief to be altered or abandoned (if not,
you are dealing with politics or religion as Michael pointed out). Science
is not a popularity contest, although the popularity of an idea often fuels
its funding and public discussion.

I believe many Americans feel comfortable with the concept of voting and
with popular opinion being either completely correct or hiding some
underlying conspiracy.  My point involves neither. I looked at a body of
research, and discussed the issue with planetary geologists, and made my
observation that O'Keefe's ideas about the origin of tektites are less
prevalent among scientists than those involving other origins.

If you would like to read more into my statement based upon your desires
for tektites to be from the moon, it is fine with me. I wish we knew their
origin, and given a choice, the moon origin is my favorite. But I am not a
researcher in the field of tektites, and thus my opinions can extend no
farther than the counting of scientific papers that cross my desk.

As one well-respected terrestrial volcanologist (and former lunar material
researcher) once told me when we were discussing the tektite issue; when we
start finding tektites in Antarctica along with lunar meteorites, he will
then wonder about earlier research as to the origin of these objects. Until
that time, the global distribution of tektites, and their chemical
composition supports a terrestrial formation no matter what our wishes...
the tektites don't care what we think, they are where they are from.

Martin

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