(January 14, 2016 at 11:48 am)AAA Wrote:(January 14, 2016 at 8:24 am)Stimbo Wrote: The data isn't fully in yet and the jury still out, but the methane detected by the Curiosity rover on Mars may just be microbially produced. Geophysicist Vladimir Krasnopolsky - who may have to change his field to Areophysics - has said that since the planet has been geologically inactive for the last few million years, biological processes may be the more plausible explanation. And he's from the Catholic University of America.
Great, there's CH4, but its one of the simplest molecules, and its presence is very far from proving life existed there.
I agree, which is why I said the jury's still out. If Krasnopolsky and his colleagues are correct, the absence of areological activity doesn't really leave many alternative options other than microbial. This is what following the evidence means in this instance:
Step 1. Observation: methane on Mars
Step 2. Hypothesis: possible presence of microbial life
Step 3. Test hypothesis against observation to eliminate possibilities
Step 4. Revise or abandon hypothesis in the event of falsification
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
