psychegram
The Living Force
A friend just shared this paper with me, recently put up on ResearchGate.
The abstract:
There's a lot more in the paper. I've only browsed it so far, but from what I've seen the authors make a pretty tight case for biological activity on the red planet. Certainly, it's more convincing than anything I've seen so far.
The abstract:
And what, to me, is the money-shot:Fungi thrive in radiation intense environments. Sequential photos document that fungus-like Martian
specimens emerge from the soil and increase in size, including those resembling puffballs
(Basidiomycota). After obliteration of spherical specimens by the rover wheels, new sphericals--some
with stalks--appeared atop the crests of old tracks. Sequences document that thousands of black arctic
“araneiforms” grow up to 300 meters in the Spring and disappear by Winter; a pattern repeated
each Spring and which may represent massive colonies of black fungi, mould, lichens, algae,
methanogens and sulfur reducing species. Black fungi-bacteria-like specimens also appeared atop the
rovers. In a series of photographs over three days (Sols) white amorphous specimens within a
crevice changed shape and location then disappeared. White protoplasmic-mycelium-like-tendrils
with fruiting-body-like appendages form networks upon and above the surface; or increase in
mass as documented by sequential photographs. Hundreds of dimpled donut-shaped “mushroom-
like” formations approximately 1mm in size are adjacent or attached to these mycelium-like
complexes. Additional sequences document that white amorphous masses beneath rock-shelters
increase in mass, number, or disappear and that similar white-fungus-like specimens appeared
inside an open rover compartment. Comparative statistical analysis of a sample of 9 spherical
specimens believed to be fungal “puffballs” photographed on Sol 1145 and 12 specimens that
emerged from beneath the soil on Sol 1148 confirmed the nine grew significantly closer together
as their diameters expanded and some showed evidence of movement. Cluster analysis and a
paired sample ‘t’ test indicates a statistically significant size increase in the average size ratio
over all comparisons between and within groups (P = 0.011). Statistical comparisons indicates
that arctic “araneiforms” significantly increased in length in parallel following an initial growth
spurt. Although similarities in morphology are not proof of life, growth, movement, and changes
in shape and location constitute behavior and support the hypothesis there is life on Mars.
There's a lot more in the paper. I've only browsed it so far, but from what I've seen the authors make a pretty tight case for biological activity on the red planet. Certainly, it's more convincing than anything I've seen so far.