OK, So What was the Mars-Shattering News?

The rover found evidence of organic compounds. NOT LIFE. It was a let down. An NPR reporter mistakenly interpreted a big yell from the scientists last week as the discovery of evidence of life when it was a totally different reason. Some experiment, or piece of gear worked properly for the first time, and everybody cheered.

That's all folks.

Yeah and the carbon is maybe introduced by Mr. Rover itself.

Lets wait for the next trench! Looks like somebody introduced golf on Mars.

Thanks.

Trying to get ready for work and think at the same time. Left that detail out.

Big deal - there's methane all over the solar system.

They think it was part of a french fry.

Did not hear that well. A French let one fly?

The reporting of these results was rather unsophisticated given the sophistication of the instruments. These instruments can discriminate C12 from C14 and can thus determine whether the carbon compounds were likely to have come from lifeform metabolism. The second point is that the instruments can tell at what temperatures the gasses are released and can determine the likely chain of molecular breakdown of the soil componentry. So the instruments should be able to tell whether the chlorinated methanes were lifeform created or whether they are just perchlorate produced in the thermal oven used by the experiment. I think someone just backed off in the asessment of the results and no one is smart enough to ask the right questions about the results. There will always be criticisms of the result reporting. The analysis and the logic behind it is as important as the results themselves. The project scientists need to be interviewed carefully about what the results are and the organic chemists need to be the arbiters of the significance of each result.