Selfsim
Established Member

I think you may have confused 'organic carbon' with 'organic material' ...(??)... The two terms overlap, and one does not exclusively imply the...

Well, that's not entirely true (that's only a Mahaffy comment). Rocknest was a soil drift (not a rock drilled sample). Also, I refute that: "its...

Ok .. I understand the working hypothesis (Levin's etal). So let's look at it from the other perspective ... What would it take to falsify it?

Ok .. now I understand. Yep .. the recent study: "Effects of Long-Term Simulated Martian Conditions on a Freeze-Dried and Homogenized Bacterial ...

Well, I'm reminded of the patterns some cosmologists 'read into' the WMAP CMBR measurements. Seriously though, the initial setting out assumptions...

Thanks for those links. Very interesting. I notice the GEX, PR and GCMS results are notably absent from those pages. There's a lot of...

Again, you use a demanding question posed from a hypothetical paradigm, answer it yourself (in the negative), and then infer there can be no other...

Tee hee .. Ok .. 'good indication' is pretty innocuous .. in this case, because of the legitmately solid background work that's clearly been done for...

The combination of these form the Cosmological Principle, and are backed by the bulk of Astronomical observations to date, and Physical Laws....

Ok .. thanks for that .. just a slight wording misunderstanding. (I thought you may have been referring to some other external separate test, etc .....

(Quote courtesy of Don J .. thanks Don!) Apparently, the UV and oxidant on the very surface, doesn't prevent the detection of active, 'apparent'...

No ... its biased speculation.

Consider that the 'system' may well be self-similar at all scales .. with unknown scale limits! The emergence of order by means of self-assembly...

Interesting .. How did they know at the time, that the holes were: 'dug deep enough such that the soil was not affected by solar radiation'? All...

Moot point. Complex organics were unambiguously discovered from particles collected by Stardust from 81P. No complex organics have been...

.. and thus also showing that the 'apparent metabolism' displayed by the unshielded sample, was uneffected by eons of exposure to UV at the surface …...

.. then try not thinking about it as "nothing special here" … Try thinking "nothing", (or "don't know")! It opens up way more opportunities,...

Just sharing some reflective thoughts here, (so please excuse the slight diversion .. 'twill only be a one-post 'behind the scenes explanation of my...

A matter of risk assessment, and of subsequent evidence based judgment. (i)References? (ii) How do we know Phobos is 'sterile', (seeing as...

No. A second sample was taken from a different environment for comparison of results with the first sample. 'Seemingly' one shielded almost entirely...

Yep .. I'm aware of this .. (they also slip-up from time to time). :) The 'forward' contamination issue is more about eliminating measurement...

Which shows that the empirical tests "from a sufficiently large number of locations external to Mars to get something representative" are necessary...

Whilst the guy in the clip is entitled: "Lead Hardware Engineer", his wording displays a particularly poor understanding of the purposes behind...

Out of interest in the noble cause of electron conservation, (they're useful for lots of other things y'know), I'll get to where I'm coming from .. ...

.. A simple UV opaque barrier prevents this from happening … like hiding them behind a rock! Let me see .. oh yeah .. Viking already did that test ...

Nonsense. In this hypothetical, all we 'know' is that they were found on Mars, and not on the comets sampled, nor were they found in samples tested...

We really should start another thread if this topic is of interest ... The quick and dirty answer however, is that it appears, (from the sample...

Not wanting to divert the thread away form Mars, but by way of comparison, Wild 2 is far more consistent with the exo-life paradigm of...

Hi there IreneAnt! :) I think your underlined point above, may be being a little coy. Astrobiology has been introduced as the strategy for...

Funny ... I thought that's why McKay et al are developing an ice drill(?) ... Y'know, because surface organic bio-markers are just about 'sterilised'...