Mars is often suggested as a good location to search for alien life. Despite many missions to the red planet, it's still a mystery whether life existed there in the distant past or if it is thriving there today. Attempting to answer this question was an aim of the Viking missions of 1976, but the results of those experiments were frustratingly ambiguous. At a recent science conference, Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen in Germany explained how he took another look at the data and came up with two reasons why the Viking experiments didn't provide conclusive answers to the life on Mars question. First, they didn't find organic material in the gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer, a device which detects the chemicals present in a sample. Although it was extremely sensitive, it didn't find any of the chemicals we associate with life. And the second reason? "Upon moisturising the soil, they found a rapid development of oxygen, carbon dioxide and some nitrogen," says Houtkooper. A majority of scientists think an inorganic oxidant created this reaction, and that the Martian soil contains no life. However, this interpretation doesn't sit well with Houtkooper, and he suspects that Viking may have discovered Martian microbes after all. "In my opinion, the search for an inorganic oxidant to explain the Viking results has not really come up with the definitive solution," he says. "I think it is time to look at alternatives. The biological explanation is an interesting one."
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