"Melba's Maybe, Maybe Not"

 

 

(Here is a follow up to a story we have been watching in the news on The Melba Ketchum DNA "Study" See why we call her "The Cat Vet"?). As we said, this kind of nonsense would just go on and on. What was needed was a body, a real Bigfoot body and Rick Dyer brought one back)

 

 Texas veterinarian Melba Ketchum's claims that she proved the existence of Sasquatch with DNA evidence last fall caused even some serious scientists to stand up and take notice.

 

Now, they're rolling over and playing dead. A Houston newspaper reporter had the purposed Big Foot sample DNA tested by an independent geneticist and found Ketchum's 'evidence' isn't what she claims.

The sample contains mostly opossum DNA, mixed in with markers from other animals, according to the tests.

 Houston Chronicle science reporter Eric Berger says there is no evidence that any of the DNA in the sample belongs to a Sasquatch or any other hominid cousins of humans

 When Ketchum released her 'scientific study' of Big Foot earlier this year, Berger hammered her for not submitting the paper to a credible peer-reviewed journal and not allowing mainstream researchers to verify her work.

 Instead, she launched a journal of her own, the DeNovo Scientific Journal, and published her findings online and charged $30 to read the work.

If Ketchum really had the goods she would have co-authored the paper with reputable scientists and gotten the work published in a reputable scientific journal,' Berger wrote in February.

'Instead she’s playing to an audience that doesn't understand how science works, that wants to believe Bigfoot exists and is willing to send her some cash to further their delusions.'

 However, Ketchum approached Berger and offered him definitive proof of her findings - she would let his friend, a top Houston geneticist, take a sample of her Big Foot DNA and test it himself.

 

Ketchum claims the sample came from a family of ten Sasquatches that lives in northern Michigan. She says the sample was taken from the crumbs left behind after the Bigfoots ate blueberry bagels

 She claims that her analysis of the Big Foot's DNA shows that they are distant cousins to human beings - the result of a non-human hominid mating with human women about 15,000 years ago.

 

Berger admits he allowed himself to get momentarily excited by the prospect of testing Sasquatch DNA.

 

'If the evidence backed up Ketchum’s claims, I had a blockbuster story. My geneticist source would have a hand in making the scientific discovery of the decade, or perhaps the century. Ketchum would be vindicated,' he wrote.

Instead, he says, rational science came crashing down. The sample contained nothing more than the remnants left behind by common forest animals.

 

 

 

 

"DNA Dilemma"

 

 

If you have been following this story, you know that a science blogger named Eric Berger released information stating that "a highly reputable geneticist" friend of his in Texas had looked into Dr. Melba Ketchum's data claiming that it was "a mix of opossum and other species." Ketchum posted a response to all this on you Facebook page (Below)

In response to the latest round of criticism. 1. We did give these folks access to the genomes. 2. They only pulled random sequences and did not look at the whole genomes. The person from UT that did our analysis told me that he never got all of the raw data uploaded to the second lab due to computer problems on the receiving lab's end. 2. I offered raw DNA to this lab so they could extract and sequence themselves. They would not even give the courtesy of a reply. 3. They refused to even speak with me on the phone. The entire thing was completely and totally unprofessional. 4. They never tried to check the analysis done at the University of Texas even though the bioinformatics person put himself at their disposal.

 What findings they gave were impossible since both of our labs would have had to extract feces to obtain these results. If it had been feces, we would not have been able to obtain the preliminary results that we got prior to the genomes. After all, they were the same extractions. You can't get feces from tissue, blood and saliva. If we did extract feces, the quality scores would not have been this high. That is in the literature. This leads to a couple of possibilities. One, there is a conspiracy to suppress our findings. Two, they just didn't care and didn't believe that there is even the possibility that Sasquatch exists and therefore just wanted to be done with it because they had other projects. Three, they themselves suppressed it for fear that their careers would be damaged. The things that I know for sure are that it was not an adequate analysis, they did not even try to double check or recreate our findings. If they really had an interest, they would have jumped at the chance to resequence the raw samples. Funny thing, I offered the samples to three other places also and nobody was willing to test. Something is just not right. I also offered several people an opportunity to visit a habituation site including this reporter and his lab people so they could have a sighting. Of course they didn't want that either. Bottom line, nobody except a few of you here even care about the truth. Most would rather perpetuate that BF is a myth or an ape.

"Ketchum DNA, A Mix Of Opossum & Other Species"

                                                               Melba Ketchum

(Source, The Science Guy, Eric Berger)

 

Back in February I savaged the release of a research paper that claimed to prove the existence of Bigfoot by providing a DNA sequence from the species.

The paper contained details of DNA from the “Sasquatch genomes,” which the authors characterized as novel and non-human.

Following the paper’s publication I solicited the views of several geneticits on the work. From their reading of the scientific paper — published in a journal that had been started just the week before — they said at best the evidence was inconclusive.

In summarizing my views of the work, led by Nacogdoches geneticist Melba Ketchum, I was blunt and brutal:

If Ketchum really had the goods she would have co-authored the paper with reputable scientists and gotten the work published in a reputable scientific journal. Instead she’s playing to an audience that doesn't understand how science works, that wants to believe Bigfoot exists and is willing to send her some cash to further their delusions.

A funny thing happened later that week — Ketchum called me. We spoke for nearly an hour, and after the bad things I had written about her research, I was impressed that she bore no grudge and wanted to nonetheless engage with me. It was a good and constructive conversation.

I am first and foremost a journalist, and I figured if there was even a 1 percent chance that the Bigfoot evidence was real, it was worth my time to check the story out.

So I agreed to be an intermediary between Ketchum and a highly reputable geneticist in Texas, whom I trusted and knew personally. I also knew that this geneticist was first and foremost a scientist, and if there was even a 1 percent chance the Bigfoot evidence was real, he'd want check out the story. I asked, and he was willing to approach the evidence with an open mind.

(Why am I maintaining my source’s anonymity? Because some of his peers would question his engagement on such a topic, believing it unworthy of valuable research time. But make no mistake, he is a top-notch scientist at the top of his field.)

The deal was this: I would hold off writing anything until this geneticist had his lab test the DNA samples obtained by Ketchum that were purportedly a novel and non-human species. If the evidence backed up Ketchum’s claims, I had a blockbuster story. My geneticist source would have a hand in making the scientific discovery of the decade, or perhaps the century. Ketchum would be vindicated.

In short, we would all have been winners.

Alas, I met my geneticist friend this past week and I asked about the Bigfoot DNA. It was, he told me, a mix of opossum and other species. No find of the century.

I'm honestly really disappointed. A world with Bigfoot would be a little softer. A little more fun. But in my world science is the arbiter of reality.


(Editor note: Geez, it's a good thing Rick Dyer has a body, otherwise this kind of crazy stuff would go on forever)