Life on Mars Still Unproven, Cal Poly Professor and Colleagues Say in Journal Article
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چکیده
Life on Mars still remains in the realm of science fiction, not solid science, according to Cal Poly Physics Professor Richard Frankel and his co-authors in an article to be published Wednesday (Nov. 21) in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Frankel and other members of his research team challenge NASA scientists' much-publicized announcement in 1996 that a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica contains evidence of fossil bacteria – and thus life on Mars at some point in the planet's history. That 1996 NASA announcement brought a storm of excitement, publicity and controversy. In the five years since, other scientists have shown that nonbacterial contamination could explain many of the " bacterium-shaped objects " and supposedly organic chemicals found in the meteorite and cited by NASA as evidence. Now Frankel and the other members of his research team have assailed the final NASA contention: that the magnetite crystals found in the Martian meteorite have three-dimensional shapes identical to certain bacteria here on Earth, and different from any of those produced by any inorganic (nonbiological) forces. Frankel and team members argue that the assumed match between the Martian meteorite's crystals and bacteria on Earth is at best ambiguous and at worst, mistaken. In their paper, " Magnetite Morphology and Life on Mars, " Frankel and his co-authors argue that the evidence for bacterial magnetite crystals on the Martian meteorite is inadequate, and they used comparisons with bacterial magnetite crystals from Morro Bay to help explain why. The magnetite crystals in the NASA Martian meteorite are tiny, even by the standards of an electron microscope, Frankel explains. They are only 40 to 100 billionths of a meter wide. " And there's the rub, " says Frankel. " The technology necessary to accurately describe the
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