"Researchers reanalyzed the results of a 1976 experiment conducted by NASA’s Viking robots to detect for life on Mars. The robots picked up soil samples from the Red Planet and looked for signs of microbial metabolism. At the time, scientists concluded the Labeled Release Experiment showed geological activity, not biological.
This time, researchers distilled Viking data into sets of numbers, hoping that method could better reveal complexity. The result: Close correlations were found between the complexity of the Viking data and those of terrestrial biological data sets. The researchers say their findings show NASA’s Viking robots found biological activity after all." Washpost
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Worth noting. pl
I remember reading that as a kid in our local metro newspaper.
Posted by: Pirouz | 13 April 2012 at 12:42 PM
Do you mean "worth noting" or "worth nothing". This goes to our American propensity to make up numbers for everything.
Posted by: r whitman | 13 April 2012 at 12:54 PM
That is a true statement.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 13 April 2012 at 01:03 PM
Pirouz
NASA's conclusion at the time was that Viking did not fins life. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 13 April 2012 at 03:20 PM
Low probablilty of being real, but if real, it's huge news. Finding life - even just strong evidence of extinct microbial life - on (past, really) the outer edge of the Goldilocks Zone tilts the parameters of Drakes Equation pretty heavily in favor of sapient ET's being out there somewhere.
I'm skeptical, but I hope it's true. The implications - scientific, theological, and political - are truly stagerring. Was it Arthur C. Clarke who said something like:
"Alien life is out there somewhere, or we're alone in the universe - either way, it's [mind-blowing]".
Posted by: elkern | 13 April 2012 at 06:16 PM
elkern, Had to share, in case anyone was unaware of it:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/shostack-seti-qa.html
Seems CETI not finding anything (yet) is utterly meaningless. We couldn't find ourselves just one light year away.
Posted by: Mark Logan | 13 April 2012 at 08:23 PM
A while back, we had a discussion about budget cuts at NASA. Just read an article stating that NASA is pulling out of two ESA Mars projects and is seeking a cheaper way to adhere to its goal of putting a man on Mars in the 2030s. The ESA projects, aimed at bringing Martian soil samples back to Earth, will go forward with Russia as a partner. With this latest news about the Viking discovery, I think it would be a good time to seriously consider the idea of a concerted international effort of exploring Mars.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47044516/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T4jStu2aC2w
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 13 April 2012 at 10:02 PM
DNA is an ongoing counter argument...Hegel saw it...hello brother antithesis
Posted by: 505thPIR | 13 April 2012 at 10:51 PM