

Curiosity has "not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics" - dredge
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-377

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jayfuerstenberg
But now they're reporting they found plastic (
<http://nasaupdatecenter.us/press.html> ) which on Earth at least is created
by petrochemical compounds caused by... life.

If nothing else, we know "where" to focus our search for extraterrestrial
life.

~~~
huxley
Apparently that's a fake site: <http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html>

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tokenadult
This is a good response to the active thread yesterday based on second-hand
speculation.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4841887>

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th0ma5
I fully expected this is to be something like that despite their clean-room
standards of handling the rover a bit of hair or skin did wind up in the thing
somehow.

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bprater
Why even say anything in the first place?

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zheng
To quell expectations. Nothing is worse than announcing that you have found
something very interesting (scientifically), only for the press to report
"NASA doesn't find aliens, should funding be cut?"

~~~
biot
"in the first place" would imply that they don't make the initial
announcement, so there would have been nothing to quell.

~~~
goodcanadian
They haven't (or at least hadn't) made any announcement. The only announcement
was for a press conference on December 3 to give an update. The rumour mill
provided the rest.

