harvard & aliens & crackpots: a disambiguation of Avi Loeb

Yeah, that guy again. Required viewing: acollierastro harvard & aliens & crackpots: a disambiguation of Avi Loeb ▶ this video

posted here a few days ago: [ harvard & aliens & crackpots: a disambiguation of Avi Loeb ]( ▶ this video ) by Angela Collier. It's 1h6m long but I was surprised about myself that I watched the entire thing and I guess it's because of the high quality of the presentation and the occasional deadpan remark that keep you awake. Talk about Avi Loeb specifically start at 24 minutes. The most damning part of her takedown is probably when she shows zoom footage of a physicists' video conference and other snippets where Loeb is literally foaming with expletives directed mostly at fellow physicists, y'know, the Establishment who just wouldn't follow his by-now predictable but wholly unsupported jump from "I found mineral spherules on the bottom of the ocean" to "these must come from that deep space meteorite that I lately discovered" to "It's aliens!". Collier is such a sound antidote to all that flaky and faky science coverage we're getting. For all the clear words that she finds she still leaves viewers with an open question: "So is Loeb a grifter? I don't think so. Is he a crackpot? Future will tell."

Since it's on topic, I'd like to share a small youtuber who does science communication. She covered Loeb and the topics of crackpots in science [1]. Her other video on string theory and how it damaged science communication is really good too. [1] ▶ this video

Thanks to hikingsimulator's link below, here is Loeb interacting with Tarter [0]. The entire video is worth listening to and the vlogger is refreshingly fair minded. 0. ▶ this video

> He's written "over 800 scientific papers". Is that... a good thing in his field? No...it really isn't. If you want a very accurate and in depth breakdown of why, i suggest you watch this: ▶ this video If you don't want to do the whole thing, just jump to his lovely little interaction with Jill Tarter. Then look at all the comments trying to somehow give this snake oil salesman credibility. He's a publicity chaser who's past his prime and cashing in on his reputation and abusing his position. The fact harvard is profiting from it frankly is a disgrace.

OK so maybe I should've just linked e.g. to that very detailed (and sort of lengthy, but entertaining) video by acollierastro "harvard & aliens & crackpots: a disambiguation of Avi Loeb" ( ▶ this video ) which is definitely not flamewar-ish. Guess I've gotten somewhat thin-skinned given the volume of faux / overblown science news of late. For those reading this, there's yet another post here ( link ) that links to a harvard.edu article that gives more details on why the collectors of the spherules believe they have reason to assume that (1) they are really from the suspected meteorite, (2) the material's composition doesn't resemble materials known from other meteorites. Many questions remain though; for those interested in spherules from outer space, there's yet another earlier post ( link ) that links to a video that shows how excrutiating it is to collect and sort out teeny meteorites from the environment. Having seen that and a clip about the expedition's method of collecting (lowering a strong magnet to the seafloor) I wonder how often they lifted the thing up to collect material because otherwise they could not produce statistics about abundance in relation to the asteroid's flight path.

This isn't the first time Loeb has shouted "aliens!" Previously he said Ouamuamua was aliens based on a hunch, and after the news got their hands on it and declared aliens to the public, astronomers were understandably peeved with him and asked him not to shout "aliens!" unilaterally based on a hunch. Loeb didn't take it well. There's an amazing clip where he rants about how he is the only one serious about finding extraterrestrial intelligence... To a room full of career SETI astronomers. Here's a video essay about him. (People who have a strong preference for direct/to the point videos would probably be better served seeking out another source, I feel like this video adds interesting context but I know a lot of you would feel it's fluff.) ▶ this video

It really isn't. One of the authors (Abraham Loeb) is well known for writing salami-sliced papers that have tenuous and non-testable premises. You should be skeptical of anything he writes after watching this: ▶ this video

I liked the time when Avi yelled at the director of SETI, Jill Tarter (inspiration for the fictional Ellie Arroway from the movie Contact), whose life's work has been searching for ETs for not searching for ETs in the right way. ▶ this video

Fun link dump: * harvard & aliens & crackpots: a disambiguation of Avi Loeb by acollierastro (2022) ▶ this video * Critique of arXiv submission 2308.15623, "Discovery of Spherules of Likely Extrasolar Composition in the Pacific Ocean Site of the CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1) Bolide", by A. Loeb et al by Steve Desch, Alan Jackson link * The IM1 Spherules from the Pacific Ocean Have Extrasolar Composition by Avi Loeb (August 2023) link * Reconstructing the First Interstellar Meteor, IM1 by Avi Loeb (September 2023) link

Important context: this is Avi Loeb, the guy who insisted that Oumuamua might be aliens. Here's a nice exposé on him and his shoddy work ▶ this video

The man produces garbage papers. He characterizes the work as useful stepping stones for other scientists to do the rest of the obvious followup work, which he can't be bothered with. He's too busy churning out thought experiments. ▶ this video His skype rant to SETI leadership about how nobody is taking the idea of contact or evidence of alien civilizations seriously, is really sad.