[meteorite-list] Quarter of Mars Scientists at European Meeting Believe Life Possible on Mars

[Francis Graham]

--- Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

> Quarter of Mars Scientists at European Meeting
> Believe Life Possible on
> Red Planet

  Add me, though I am a moon guy, not a Mars guy. We
have methane, truncated hexaoctahedral magnetite in
ALH 84001, formaldehyde...what do the critics want, 
to be hauled away by Martians kicking and screaming?
  The scientific criterion for the identification of
new life was established by Linnaeus at the very start
of modern biology: a type specimen, a fossil, or a
reliable biomarker (a new kind of bird, for example,
can be inferred from a new kind of bird's nest). This
standard has now been met in the case of Mars, though
barely.
  I guess we want more than barely because it is ON
MARS, although it would have been sufficient for
Earth.
OK, OK. As time goes on, more evidence will come
in...the "yes, but"s will seem more and more strained,
as they are becoming...and the no-lifers will seem
increasingly intractably dogmatic.
  I see their point of view. Like Lowell's canals, we
have been fooled before. But this time, I think it's
real. Seems so.

Francis Graham







		
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