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Peroxide wash on Mars

By catdynamics on January 8, 2007.

From American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle:

Prof Schulze-Makuch from Washington State has a conjecture that reconciles the Viking experiments - which were generally inconsistent with life on Mars but showed some residual puzzles - with the current thinking that there might be persistent life.

He suggests the surface life uses a H2O2/H2O mixture to adapt to low temperatures and oxidised surface this, they claim, would facilitiate a water based oxygen metabolism.

here is the paper and the press release from WSU

Grrl Scientist is not amused

Hm.
Well, it is a testable hypothesis, which is more than most.
It is also, to some degree a "Just So..." story. But maybe that is where we are.

Anyway, I looked it over sunday when I got the press release and didn't bother blogging it, but when I see it on Olbermann, I figured I'd better produce a pointer.

Fun, wouldn't bet on it, but it just might work.

Tags
astro

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