Mars: The Living Planet - Hardcover

DiGregorio, Barry

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883319587 ISBN 13: 9781883319588

Publisher: North Atlantic Books,U.S., 1997

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Claims of Martian life continue to spur scientific debate; this partisan account summarizes the arguments to date. When several experiments conducted by the 1976 Viking Mars Landers returned positive results regarding signs of life, NASA scientists dismissed them as false positives. According to DiGregorio, this was based on nothing more than a refusal to accept the possibility of life beyond Earth. To bolster this argument, he surveys the history of the idea that life might exist on other planets, invoking such names as Giordano Bruno and Galileo.

As our understanding of both biology and astronomy grew, the notion that life is not unique to Earth took hold in the minds of many scientists. The recent rise of the new science of exobiology opened doors to an understanding of how life might have arisen on any planet with the right conditions. Dr. Levin and Dr. Straat, who designed and built one of the Viking experiments, contribute two chapters summarizing the current status of this fascinating debate.

The author's detailed research, as well as extensive interviews with Dr. Levin and others, highlights the intriguing evidence pointing to life on the Red Planet.

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From the Author:

Microbial life was discovered on Mars by G.V. Levin in 1976
My book "Mars The Living Planet -should have been released in June 1997, however due to circumstances beyond my control (the publisher) it will be released closer to August. Why should it matter? Chapter 9 is written by Dr. Gilbert V. Levin who concludes absolutely that his experiment on the Viking Landers in 1976 discovered living microorganisms in the soil of Mars. In examining over 100 different lines of evidence myself over a four year period --I concur with Levin's conclusion. Will Mars Pathfinder show us any evidence of life? Perhaps, if NASA will allow true color images of the surface of Mars --not images with infrared filters! True color images of Mars are reproduced using only the primary colors red, green, and blue. If cousins of alage or photosynthetic bacteria exist in the Martian soil and on the surfaces of some rocks --then Mars Pathfinder will have confirmed additional evidence for life on Mars. Also, rocks at the Pathfinder landing site may show evidence of fossils. Note that none of NASA's new spacecraft have life detection experiments in spite of efforts by other exobiologists who have submiited numerous proposals to do so. Why are life-detection experiments being considered by NASA as non-essential when they continue with their plan to bring back a soil sample from Mars? If there is even a one-in-a-million chance that Martian soil contains viable living microorganims (and I show that the soil is indeed alive in my book) then NASA needs to thoroughly investigate the nature of that life on the surface of Mars (not on Earth!) by sending robotic spacecraft equipped with a host of biology experiments and microscopes and other biological testing equipment. If we bring back a sample from Mars assuming it is harmless --it could cause the greatest environmental disaster since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. I encourage all readers interested in life in the universe to read my book.

Synopsis:

This text presents a description of Mars's biology and biological potential since 1997's announcement of life in a Martian meteorite. What few people realize, however is that Viking Lander laboratory experiments on the Martian surface arranged by bioengineer and chemist Dr Gilbert V. Levin in 1976 showed clear indications of life on Mars. NASA disputed these results, and only now have Levin's files been opened to the public eye. This text not only traces a search for alien life forms, but it is also an encyclopaedia of current knowledge of the Martian landscape and biosphere, its history, and its potential for sustaining life.

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