Life on Mars hopes raised

BBC News Online ^ | April. 5, 2002 | Dr. David Whitehouse

[Nebullis]

Chorophyll! How about something else with the same IR energy?

It's almost not going to be surprising anymore to find life on Mars.

[concerned about politics]

There's a mountain on mars that looks like a human face. Maybe it's just hair.

[DallasMike]

We know their are Martian meteorites on the Earth, so it stands to reason that there are Earthian meteorites on Mars.

Exactly. I would be surprised if there weren't life on Mars and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system.

[Nebullis]

This zombie?

[JoeSixPack1]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!! :-)

[edwin hubble]

Thanks for the ping!

I have had more than one bright young student tell me that he or she wants to go into exo-biology or astro-biology.

I tell them (with a wink) "It's hard enough for the cosmologists and astrophysicists... unable to account for 90% of their subject matter... You want a field without any subject matter?"
But, of course, with amino acids found in nebulae, comets, meteors, it is probably just a matter of time.

[concerned about politics]

Yep! That's the fella!

Kinda creepy. isn't it? What's the possibility that Mars was once inhabited, but destroyed itself through war? Kaboom! No more martians, or the environmentalists they were fighting over land rights with?

[Nebullis]

You want a field without any subject matter?

There's enough to do here on earth for exobiologists. This chlorophyll matter alone has taken an enormous amount of preparation on earth, with subsequent useful spinoffs.

Why would anyone discourage a student? I tell my students if they really love it, if they have a passion for it, go for it.

[Nebullis]

Kinda creepy. isn't it?

Different light and a different angle might give you a picture of an angel.

[edwin hubble]

see my post: "(with a wink)... "
I was kidding...
Of course I encourage them,
and devote lectures to the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.
I've encouraged some to go on to a Ph.D. in science.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Ping right back atcha, good buddy.

[Old Professer]

Since the "signatures" were found on the rover itself and the immediate landing area I think the Jolly Green Giant should wear gloves the next time.

[Old Professer]

There are also exobiologists and zenobiologists

Shouldn't that be xenobiologists?

[Nebullis]

Of course I encourage them, and devote lectures to the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.

Oh! Great! It would be surprising not to find extraterrestrial life. Anyway, I was advised, early in my career, that women, science, and babies don't mix. It was unheeded but correct advice.

[RightWhale]

Shouldn't that be xenobiologists?

You are correct. You may also be the only one paying attention.

[callisto]

Microscopic structures found on the rims of the globules found on the Martian meteorite. Nanobacteria from Mars?

http://pegasus.phast.umass.edu/a101/images/mars_nanobac2.jpg

[billbears]

The real question is, "Is there life at the BBC?"

I guess you've never watched Red Dwarf or whatever the name of that show is from the BBC. You'd know the answer is a most definite no

[Brett66]

They'll probably have to reasses the old Viking experiments if solid proof is found and I guess that'll also silence the critics of ALH84001.

[Nebullis]

There's a recent discussion of this and I'll try to hunt it down for you. The formations under question can be formed in vitro abiologically.

[Nebullis]

I can't find the reference right now but someone recently made the same magnetite crystal structures in her lab.