dino dna

["Bonnie Blackwell, x 3332" <bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>]

a word about the authors of the science article on dna:
jeff bada has been known for many years in the geochem/geochron 
community (esp. those that work on quaternary problems).
he's the on who in 1970-1985 promoted amino acid racemization dating
big time, and "dated" many sites that had great archaeological significance
including olduvai, and a number of paleoindian sites in calif.
problem was he missed a little detail in the process, namely that
amino acid racemization rates depended on the environmental geochemistry
in the site where the bone/tooth was preserved.  the upshot was that
all his dates are no considered unreliable. 
that does not say that he is not a good chemist, he just does not
think well as a GEOchemist.  

he also worked with miller (of urey/miller fame) on organic molecules
in the early earth and cosmogenesis of organic molecules as a grad
student.  

whether this work will stand the test of time remains to be seen. 
some refs if you are interested:

Blackwell et al., 1992.  Geoarchaeology 5 (forget page numbers right
now and am at home so i can't look em up).

Blackwell & Schwarcz, 1993.  Archaeochronology and scale.  In 
GSA Spec Pap 283.

b

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonnie A. Blackwell,                            bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu
Dept of Geology,                                off: (718) 997-3332
Queens College, City University of New York,    fax: (718) 997-3349
Dept of Earth \& Environmental Sciences,        fax: (718) 997-3513
The Graduate Center, CUNY,                      messages: (718) 997-3300
Flushing, NY 11367-1597