co - editor , zita martins , a chemist and astrobiologist from emperors college london , believes their findings suggest that some of the chemicals that generated life on earth stemmed from meteorite shelling . " we are not writing that only microbes contributed to the building stones of life , " she said , " but it ' s a very great contribution . " other scientists , conversely , do not believe that meteoritic processes play such a key role . talking to emeritus professor robert shapiro of north york university , " they ' re a subunit of a subunit of dna . my opinion is that their amounts were virtually banal and unnecessary . " wikinews asked professor michael james , a physicist and astrobiologist presently at arizona technological university , about the recent findings . while he disagree with the findings , he said that he thinks such discoveries are " a red circle in the origin of life story - a binge from the miller - urey experiment . earth is all about data - its creation and storage . "
Shapiro teaches at NY University.