Fragmentary remains of two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, were carried aboard a Virgin Galactic flight on Sept. 8. Departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the fossils, carried by South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash in a cigar-shaped tube, were rocketed to the edge of space.

“I am horrified that they were granted a permit,” Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches. “This is NOT science.”

  • toasteecup@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    28
    ·
    2 年前

    The remains, were blasted out into space.

    They are not available, they are irretrievably gone.

    They couldn’t be more lost to the annuals of time than things thrown in a volcano.

    • Kalash@feddit.ch
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 年前

      No? They were on a glorified plane that landed back on earth.

      edit: “A two-million-year-old collarbone and a 250,000-year-old thumb bone were stored in a protected container and tucked into the pockets of Timothy Nash, one of three paying customers”

      So unless they jettisoned this guy, the bones are safe …

      https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-human-fossils-in-space