Mars Fever

Mars is all the rage these days. There's the Mars Rising miniseries burning up The Science Channel's ratings, there's President Bush's promise to send astronauts to the red planet, and there's the extraordinary popularity of the band 30 Seconds to Mars. Well, maybe not the last one. But it seems the Telegraph has come down with quite a virulent case of the Mars Fever. Their recent headline, "Mars rover finds signs of microbial life", may sound like an amazing announcement, but it's really kind of false. NASA's Spirit rover has discovered a patch of silica-rich soil on the Martian plateau known as "Home Plate", but there aren't any signs of life--microbial or not. Still, the soil is a good indicator that the area was once home to a life-friendly hot spring environment, which makes Spirit's discovery one of the more compelling signs that life once teemed on the Martian surface. Of course, if there's one thing the Telegraph loves more than hip new Mars news, it's hyperbole. Read their article here.