R.L.: From the way you shy away from the technical issues and the way you constantly harp on trivial points to try and embarrasS those that disagree with you, I'd say you don't know that much about them either.

Barry says: I never shy away from technical issues, that's your perception. I do not however, respond to Mars Society nuts who ask the same questions over and over. If you want to know where I stand on Viking and planetary protection, read my book or go to the iCAMSR website. And just to prove your ignorance about my knowledge about Viking, I suppose you are unaware that I wrote Mars: The Living Planet about and with two Viking biology team members? How uninformed can you get? Or are you saying your views on their work is more significant than the actual work they conducted on the surface of Mars? A self assuming Mr. know it all?

http://www.biospherics.com/mars/marsbook.htm

Here is an article I wrote for the IEEE Spectrum. I suppose you don't know much about this publication being such a busy scientist and all. Here you go:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/may03/mars.html

R.L. - You are not a scientist, you are just a guy with an agenda...

Barry says: What is your definition of a scientist? A guy with a PhD? I know lot's of PhD's that aren't qualified to discuss astrobiology and you are one!

R.L. - As for knowing about back contamination issues, well I know enough to see that some of the statements you make show you are NOT qualified to speak as anything more than a guy who saw "Andromeda Strain" once too many times.

Barry says: Well for a guy who has only seen the Andromeda Strain once or twice I have a lot of scientific support for ICAMSR! I have the largest library of planetary protection documents outside NASA. Mull through the ICAMSR website:

www.icamsr.org

Here is an article i wrote for the American Chemical Society magazine Chemical Innovation:

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/ci/31/special/digreg/08digregorio.html

R.L. -I have seen you argue that viral outbreaks can come from space! This alone shows your ignorance- Viruses and their hosts have to co-evolve...

Barry says: I suppose you feel the work being done by Wickramasinghe and others regarding pansperima is a waste of time. The truth is you don't know if disease causing pathogens might come from space or not. Or are you being "that all knowing scientist" again?

Please do list your peer reviewed publication for me. I want to have a look at your work in astrobiology or a remotely related field. Just because you have a PhD doens't impress me much. I know lot's of NASA PhD dummies who don't know the first thing on how the Viking bio experiments work. I include you in that category. You are a obviously a self appointed hypocrite and not much of a scientist. Your title is irrelevant. You have no respect for other scientists whose work makes yours pale by comparison. Get a life. Go to your Mars Society Star-Trek-like conventions and get yourself one of those duct tape and canvas spacesuits and go tell everyone what important Mars research you are doing!

BD