Its entirely possible that there is microbial life somewhere on Mars. But if there is, Gil Levin didn't find it. There is no substantive scientific debate over the Viking lander findings. What these results told us is that if there is life on Mars, its gonna be a lot harder to find than just snooping the surface.

My problem with Mr. Levin is that he continues to exaggerate and misinterpret the science in order to resurrect a claim that has long since been proven wrong. His assertions in Mr. David's article are simply par for the course for the man.

The rovers are incapable of detecting life. The best we can hope to learn is that Mars may have once help pools of liquid water at its surface billions of years ago. And, I would not be surprise to learn that the soil interacts with water vapor to create minute, almost non-existent amounts of brine that over millions of years manifests itself into what we observe at the surface. But I doubt this is sufficient to suggest extant microbial at the surface.