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Project Progress

I have developed a new philosophical account of the difference between the methodology of historical science, which includes hypotheses in planetary science and astrophysics, and laboratory science. My account grounds the difference between these practices in an objective and pervasive feature of nature, thus defeating claims (by the likes of Henry Gee, an editor of Nature) that historical science is either inferior to laboratory science or not even bona fide science. I have applied this analysis to the debate over whether ALH84001 contains fossilized martian life. I have finished 2 papers on this topic, one for the lay person and the other for scientists, and am currently working on one for philosophers of science. I have achieved the goals that I set for this year. I am planning to continue this work next year, and to begin working on issues centering on whether there could be an adequate definition of life.