Roswell Debris "Not from Earth"

[RenaissanceLady]

I admit I'm more than a little skeptical about any Roswell claims, especially those being made this late in the game. Still, I thought I would pass this along for your feedback. What I find interesting about this particular instance is that the claims are being made by a science teacher at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell and that he alleges tests have been done that prove metals found at the crash site came from outer space:

A teacher at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell may have discovered the first scientific evidence of manufactured debris made on another planet. Furthermore, this debris was found near the location where pieces from an alleged flying saucer were discovered outside of Roswell in 1947.

Frank Kimbler teaches high school level Earth Sciences and college level Geology at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He says he has always had an interest in UFOs, and actually had his own unusual sighting in his twenties. So when he moved to Roswell, he decided to put his expertise to the test and take a shot at investigating the most famous UFO incident of all time, the crash at Roswell.

He says his main goal was to find some physical evidence. He started by looking at some satellite imagery of the alleged “debris site.” This is where rancher, Mac Brazel, had told the Air Force he had found pieces of the crashed object. Kimbler used these images to enhance the infra-red in order to highlight areas where the ground was disturbed. He was surprised to find an area that was similar to what witnesses had described. It was about ¾ of a mile long and a few hundred feet wide, and facing the direction witnesses had reported. He also noticed this area had very straight edges, something unusual for a natural occurrence.

(snip)

What he found was a silvery metal that looked aluminum. This was strange because there were no indications of any sort of aluminum objects in the area. He occasionally found tin, which would come from parts of tin roofs blowing around, and some nails. He eventually found more of these silvery pieces, and says they looked shredded. Some of the edges even appear melted. He also found some aluminum buttons that appear to be the type used on military fatigues in the later 40’s. If that is the case it demonstrates that the military was in the area.

(snip)

Bigelow Aerospace showed some interest in helping Kimbler with his analysis, but after spending months with little results, Kimbler had to go elsewhere. Kimbler was able to find another lab with multiple certifications willing to do the work. The UFO Museum put up the money, and the results were back in five days. Kimbler says he almost fell over when he saw the information. The ratios were off, and as he puts it there were only two answers to explain the results, “either the lab made an analytical error or the material is not from Earth.”

However, Kimbler’s work is not finished. He says, “Following good scientific method protocol one set of data is not going to cut it.” In order to prove the lab did not make a mistake he needs to get more work done. He says he does have two more certified labs lined up to do more isotopic testing to confirm the work done thus far, and that he may have this work done within the next few weeks. Kimbler says in order to confirm the material is not from Earth, it is necessary to have two or three labs showing the same results.

You can read the full article here.

Of course the full, unedited article has some glaring omissions: It states in detail which labs and universities refused or otherwise didn't help Kimbler but doesn't quite get around to mentioning which lab actually did the work. We are therefore supposed to take the author's word that it's a lab "with multiple certifications." What does that even mean? What certifications? What type of work is their forte? This causes me to conclude that all of the other places were primarily used to name-drop and lead the reader to conclude that the final lab somehow has the same merits as these other companies and universities. (Grumble grumble the author didn't do his homework grumble grumble so much for objective research grumble grumble grrr. I hate being led around by the nose.)

Rant off: OK, assuming that the New Mexico Military Institute doesn't just allow any garden variety quack to teach its science courses and that (maybe) this lab is actually reputable, I can admit that the test results were genuinely surprising. Whether this truly means that it's alien-made or that we know less about alloys than what is in the cited Magnesium Isotope Fractionation Chart remains to be seen. I hope Mr. Kimbler truly does find two or three other certified labs to test these fragments. I'll set a Google Alert to "Frank Kimbler" just so I don't miss anything about this story.

 

[Randall]

I'm not surprised that Bigelow Aerospace turned out to be a waste of time. They claim to want "Outside of the box thinkers" but only hire people with inside the box credentials, people who have been trained for years to think inside the box and stay inside the box ( or else ). No wonder they aren't getting any results. The only affiliation they had with actual ufologists was with MUFON, also famous for its political in-fighting. Good choice Bigelow ... Did you remember to get out the toy box out during the interview ( if there was an interview )?

 

[RenaissanceLady]

Here's another, more recent article from the same site (dated August 3rd). I especially appreciate the part where he discusses working with Chasing UFOs and how they seemed less interested in doing true scientific analysis:

Kimbler led the Chasing UFOs team through the area where he has had success finding metal fragments in the past. He was excited to participate in the show because, as he claims, NatGeo agreed to have some additional analysis done on his unusual metal. But the testing did not take place. In a recent interview on the web series Spacing Out!, Kimbler explained:

National Geographic didn’t want to follow chain-of-custody protocols for it. They said they couldn’t afford to fly me out to have the analysis done. I didn’t want to give them a piece of the material to have it sit in their office for days on end, or even weeks or months . . . They said the lab said that they needed a month to do the testing, and I know that’s not true. It would take them maybe a day to calibrate it, and a day to run the test. It doesn’t take a month to do that.

But Kimbler is eager to have additional testing done on his metal, so he compromised. He said, “If we’ll sign papers and have people who can sign off on this . . . I will be more than delighted to do this, but guess what? They wouldn't do it.”

His experience on the show left him disappointed that “that whole scientific aspect of this went by the wayside.” As a scientist, he says he is not invested in one outcome or another. He explains, “Either way, I wanted some good science done.”

Besides hoping that James Fox is able to turn this series around in a second season (assuming there even is a second season), I sincerely hope that Frank Kimbler is able to get the additional testing that he wants on these fragments. I worry that any lab will be afraid of hurting an otherwise good reputation if it is discovered they tested Roswell debris.

This is part of the Catch 22: Cynics complain how anyone can study "paranormal/UFO" activity and that the field lacks those with good credentials but anyone with good credentials who tries to study "paranormal/UFO" activity essentially ends his career on that note and may lose some credentials. He may even find that others are unwilling to work with him if there's a chance the conclusions will be outside of mainstream science. What we're left with is a few, dedicated people who offer up solid research and present the facts (such as Gene Steinberg and Christopher O'Brien) and many other, large organizations (such as NatGeo, History Channel, SciFi) who only care about ratings, even at the expense of facts and hard science.

My impression is that Kimbler is really working on the side of science but is having obstacle upon obstacle thrown in his way by those who either truly don't care or have no use for objective research on this topic. I'd love to hear more about this. If Gene and Chris are reading this, I would be delighted if you could get Kimbler to appear on your broadcast.