That is where Shearer and his colleagues at UNM's Institute of Meteoritics find themselves as they begin a study of five Martian meteorites, trying to determine whether that planet might once have harbored life. The work has placed them in the scientific fishbowl that has surrounded their normally obscure field since NASA scientists in August claimed they had found evidence of ancient life in a rock from Mars. Two weeks ago, a British team reported finding additional evidence for life on Mars in the same meteorite studied by the NASA scientists. A continent away, a U.S. geochemist reported the same week that the chemicals found by the NASA scientists were just contamination picked up here on Earth. What looks to outsiders like chaos is really the way science does its business, said Harry McSween, an expert in Martian meteorites at the University of Tennessee.
Science moves ahead in fits and starts.
University of New Mexico scientist Chip Shearer will talk about the search for life on Mars this evening at the monthly meeting of New Mexicans for Science and Reason. 2 Searchable in the Basic Index and in the Additional Indexes. Region does not display in predefined formats. Not available in File 146. 8 Includes Newspaper Name, Publication Date, Edition, Section Heading, and Page Number.