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NASA's Mars News Is Not Life, But Perchlorate

Posted by kdawson on from the somewhat-less-than-alive dept.

leighklotz writes "In an update to the little green men story of not-life-on-Mars, NASA has twittered: 'The buzz this weekend was due to an interesting soil chemistry finding, still preliminary, but now avail here:' where 'here' is NASA Spacecraft Analyzing Martian Soil Data. The exciting bit: 'Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft's Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance.' Also, 'NASA will hold a media teleconference on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss these recent science activities.'"

2 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why this is important to non-chemists by myth_of_sisyphus · · Score: 0, Troll

    When I heard they were briefing the President's Science Advisor (wonder what Christian University he went to?), the news made me depressed.

    To think that an important discovery would have to be vetted through a guy who thinks he's working by and for a mythical spiritual being in the sky. I wondered what kind of God-related spin he would put on his inevitable announcement. How many times would the Creator be invoked? How many times 'pray' and 'humbleness' be said? How many scientific terms awkwardly pronounced?

    Can't a scientific discovery just be that: a SCIENTIFIC discovery?

  2. Re:I never... by Alsee · · Score: 0, Troll

    Maybe God could Twitter that twit in the White House.

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