Life on Mars is 'similar to Chilean desert'
"When Dr Navarro-Gonzales and his team repeated the Viking experiments on the Atacama soils, many of their results were similar to those on Mars, indicating the desert sands were lifeless.
"But when they tried a lower temperature setting they did find minute traces of organics - at levels lower than the Viking experiments would have been able to detect on Mars.
"Dr Navarro-Gonzales concluded: "In many respects, these soils are similar to the Mars soils investigated by the Viking biology experiment and may prove a valuable testing ground for instruments and experiments designed for future Mars missions."
"A mystery remains with the Martian and South American soils, however, as something "as-yet-unidentified" in both causes the rapid release of oxygen molecules when the soils were exposed to water vapour which would be expected if organic matter was being consumed."
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_836033.html

It's life bud.

Bob Clark