It became clear to a wide range of scientists quite soon after Clinton's big abboncement of "Life in ALH84001" that the group who had done the research didn't know what they were doing, hadn't called in enough outside help, and had shouted "Eureka" way too soon.

They've spent 5 years battling to save their careers, and have been slipping backwards all that time.

It's a very sad story.

A lot of mud has been slung, and much of it has stuck. Both sides of the argument have suffered from wasted time and effort, and degraded reputations.

It has produced some incredibly detailed science to refute them, but at the end of the day, all that effort is pretty much wasted. (Although we now know better what to look for next time).