Mars: The Living Planet

The majority of the NASA scientific community maintains the current Mars environment is incapable of supporting even simple microorganisms. They base this opinion on the biology tests conducted by the Viking Landers in 1976, claiming "no evidence" of life was found. But one of the biology experiments, Dr. Gilbert Levin's Labeled Release experiment, produced intriguing and still-unexplained reactions that more likely than not constitute an unacknowledged discovery of life on Mars. This revolutionary conclusion is supported by the August 1996 announcement by NASA of possible fossilized bacteria found in a Martian meteorite collected in Antarctica. If life existed in the geologic past, it could still exist on Mars today, adapting to ever-changing environmental conditions. Advances in microbiology since 1976 further bolster the case for life on Mars, as life is found in places on Earth long considered unsuitable, such as miles-deep aquifers and rock environments. What was once considered unlikely - microbial life on Mars - is now up for serious reconsideration. Barry DiGregorio's thorough exploration of the Mars life issue and the provocative comments supplied by Dr. Gilbert Levin himself in Chapter Nine challenge the prevailing scientific dogma. In addition to an overview of Mars' environment and biological potential and an informative discussion of the biology experiments carried out by the 1976 Viking Mission, DiGregorio looks at political obstacles within NASA itself. He asks if the discovery of life on another planet is such a belief-shattering scientific finding that it threatens fundamentalist religious ideas (perhaps adversely affecting funding for future research). The author - as well as contributing scientists Levin and Patricia Ann Straat - also discuss NASA's desire to bring a Mars soil sample to Earth for testing, which risks endangering the Earth's ecosystem should Martian lifeforms find this planet a comfortable breeding ground.