Scientist: NASA found life on Mars - and killed it

The novelist Ernest Hemingway once said that we should all "Develop a Built-In Bullshit Detector".

This stuff is a load of guesswork, twaddle and wishful thinking.

Peter.

To what does the 'this' in your post refer to?

Bart.

"Logical consistency.....not enough anymore."

Interesting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I said......twaddle.

He forgiot to mention the possibility that the Landers' legs might have crushed a few of the little critters.

Peter.

Perhaps they should use more engineer type people and fewer scientist type people? Scientist types seem to be best at theorizing, engineer types seem to be best at making things work and determining empirical facts.

There is nothing fundamentally "new" in the article either.

Of course we dont expect Martian life to be earth-like.

Percival Lowell said, well over a century ago:

"To talk of Martian Beings is not to talk of Martian Men".

Peter.

maybe mars is sterile..there is no proof either way

Perhaps there is life there, but consider where the Vikings landed.

In a desert at least 100 times drier than the central Sahara.

Baked with UV rays from the sun (thin atmosphere), which would toast even the toughest Earth-like microbes.

And,deadliest of all, bombarded with cosmic rays because there is no Martian magnetic field or Van Allen belts.

(Those cosmic rays will pose a massive problem for astronauts.Both in transit to Mars and in situ.When they land they will immediately have to start digging like rabbits.And fast!)

Peter.