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Possible Evidence of Martian Bacteria
half-seas-over writes "NASA issued a very interesting press release today. It highlights a recent study that compared tiny magnetite crystals in the Allan Hill meteorite to similar magnetite crystals that are created here on Earth by bacteria (who use the magnetite as a compass). The study (abstract available here (PDF) from this site) uses fairly strict criteria to determine that 25% of the magnetite content of the meteorite was created by ancient (>3.9Gyr ago) martian bacteria... either that or there is some strange natural process that makes very pure, isolated magnetite crystals that we haven't imagined or seen on Earth which is present on Mars. We'll have to wait and see what happens next, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' -Carl Sagan."
Not true: very little (if any) of the life on Mars findings have been proven or disproven. All that is happening is that some scientists are presenting their evidence that supports the hypothesis that life has existed or even does exist on Mars. Other scientists are scrutinising this evidence and poking holes in their analyses. This is part of the scientific process and only to be expected. What is needed is a new form of data. We can argue about magnetite in Mars meteorites for years but it probably won't solve anything. What we need is a fresh sample, that hasn't been superheated on impact and re-entry.
How all this is portrayed in the media is often misleading and, yes, that is sometimes the fault of the scientists as much as the science journalists. The truth is that the media tends to dumb down science for the general public in the belief that real science is too boring for them. Whether this is justified or not is a matter of opinion.
Scientific press releases can be a good way to get research funding. It is also a very dangerous game to play, as scientists are often misquoted to their expense.
-Karl
Dr Karl Mitchell
Planetary Science Research Group
Environmental Science Dept.
Lancaster University
UK