![]() |
The Search for Life on Mars Of Mars, the respected astronomer E.C. Slipher of Lowell Observatory wrote in 1962:
Mars is frigid, almost waterless and airless. But as lab tests with 'Mars Jars' demonstrate, some humble forms of plant life known as lichens could exist there. [2] Do they? No one doubts the planet's seasonal color changes. As Slipher observed in 1955:
Astronomer V.A. Firsoff noted:
Mars: changing with the seasons The Martian dark regions lack chlorophyll, but so do lichens. Surely, lichenlike plants existed on Mars. So Science thought -- until the late 1970s. In 1976, NASA's Viking mission landers first tested Martian soil for life.
Viking lander In the Pyrolitic Release Experiment, carbon dioxide gas traced with radioactive Carbon 14 was introduced in a test chamber with Martian soil. A xenon lamp substituted for sunlight. After five days, the soil sample was heated. Organic molecules from the vapor were trapped in a gas chromatograph tube and measured for radiation. The count was five times normal. Nothing but life was known to exchange that much carbon dioxide from atmosphere to organic molecules.
Pyrolytic Release Experiment Experimental variations were performed: once with heat sterilization, again with the light off. These would have prevented actual microorganisms from functioning. And the processes did stop. In the Gas Exchange Experiment, nutrient was added to the soil sample, and the atmospheric balance of gasses was monitored. The changes were again consistent with life. Heat-sterilization again stopped the processes.
Gas Exchange Experiment Finally, in the Labeled Release Experiment, Carbon 14 was introduced via a nutrient solution. Somehow it was transferred to atmospheric carbon dioxide. Heat-sterilization inhibited this. Most intriguing: after low heat sterilization (122 F), carbon dioxide was released and reabsorbed in a twenty-four hour cycle!
Labeled Release Experiment Dr. Herb Klein, head of the biology team, remarked, "It certainly fit the concept that there was some biology going on."[5] Dr. Norman Horowitz, the designer of the Pyrolitic Release Experiment, commented, "It is not easy to point to a nonbiological explanation for the positive results."[6] However, severe pessimism was soon to ensue. Organic molecules can be produced not only by life, but also by meteors and comets. Viking's Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GCMS), a geological instrument, was looking for organic molecules from those sources. The GCMS wasn't sensitive enough to measure organic molecules in extant life. But it should have measured the accumulation of waste molecules from ages of life. It did not -- so in 1977, the official NASA press release declared: "Biologists have not reached any final conclusion about the presence or absence of life on Mars."[7] While the statement was ambiguous, the present-day consensus has become: No Life -- It's Exotic Chemistry. Yet -- attempts to mimic Viking experiment results with exotic chemistry have failed. And Dr. Gil Levin, creator of the Labeled Release Experiment, has discovered that the GCMS can't even detect organic molecules in Antarctic soil -- where life is in fact thriving. Few listen. For scientific authority has spoken. Dr. Joshua Lederberger, Nobel-Prize winner and Viking team biologist, pronounced Levin's Labeled Release Experimental work "trivial"[8]. More recently, he's said Levin has badly "misinterpreted"[9] the Viking data. Norman Horowitz states the scientific orthodoxy:
But . . . could Mars have once been hospitable and green? Could its craters be the result of a recent, not ancient, catastrophe? Has UV sterilized the surface -- but a few hardy microorganisms survive in the shadows? Viking views desert: was it always like this? Sensing a threat, orthodoxy responds. In 1991, Herb Klein boasted: "In the last six months we on the inside have succeeded in toning down this eagerness to go back to look for extant life."[11] And fellow Viking scientist Gerald Soffen rather defensively observed: "No one wanted to say 'We found life' and then say 'Sorry.' The whole credibility of science is shot!"[12] Credibility! What about truth? The truth has been buried. But as with living things, it may rise to the surface once more. [ Notes ]
|