15 Apr 2012

Nasa Scientists find life on Mars and kill it, 36 years ago

Nasa chiefs are believed to have found tiny Martians — but KILLED them by boiling them alive. Two spacecraft that landed on the Red Planet in 1976 are now thought to have detected live microbes in Martian soil.

viking1_mars

Scientists at the time failed to spot the signs of life — and COOKED the bugs at 160°C during experiments. Now an international team has used modern techniques to re-examine data collected by the two unmanned Viking probes. Biologist Joseph Miller, of the University of Southern California, said: “I’m 99 per cent sure there’s life there. To paraphrase an old saying, if it looks like a microbe and acts like a microbe — then it probably is a microbe.”

The Sun - phenomenica.com