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For additional information, contact
Gilbert
V. Levin, (301) 419-3900
July 24, 2001 Email: glevin@spherix.com
SCIENTISTS SHIFT TO SUPPORT
LIFE ON MARS AT
INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN SAN
DIEGO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BELTSVILLE, MD, July 24,
2001. Spherix, NASDAQ/SPEX, today announced that an expert panel meeting in San
Diego today marked a major shift in scientific opinion about life on Mars. In a kickoff session of the International
Symposium on Optical Science and Technology (“SPIE”), scientists came from
Russia, Portugal, England, France, Austria, and Belgium, from ten U.S. states
and Puerto Rico to provide new evidence for possible life on the Red
Planet. Their data come from ancient
graphite in the Ukraine, Antarctic depths, extraterrestrial meteorites found on
Earth, dust in the upper atmosphere, the Hubble Space Telescope, and especially
from Mars itself. Led by Richard B.
Hoover, NASA Marshal Space Flight Center, and SPIE President; and Gilbert V.
Levin, CEO of Spherix Incorporated, Beltsville, Maryland, and a Viking
experimenter,* the researchers provided the strongest evidence to date for
primitive life forms on Mars. The
senior authors addressing this subject are:
Serge Pershin, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Moscow has found traces of water in examining wavelengths from the
Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars. He believes that increased humidity and
even a layer of liquid water is located at the Arcadia Planitia area of the red
planet. With water, there will be life,
he concludes.
Michael H.
Hecht, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory of Caltech, Pasadena, reports that images from the Mars
Global Surveyor reveal gullies that can harbor near-surface condensates of ice
late into the summer. He provides
evidence that pools of water can be formed under thin crusts of ice on
present-day Mars. He believes seasonal melting, resulting in flowing water, is
“the most straightforward explanation for the gullies.”
Barry E.
DiGregorio,
Cardiff Center for Astrobiology, UK, notes that Viking and Pathfinder images
have shown dark, shiny surfaces on Mars rocks that resemble rock varnish found
in arid areas on Earth. Rock varnish
consists of microbial precipitation of mineral oxides. He believes the dark
shiny spots on Mars have been produced by living or extinct microbial
communities. Rock varnish, he points
out, protects microbes from the dangers of UV.
*Roland Paepe, Geobound
International Ltd., Belgium; and Alexei V. Rozanov, Paleontological Institute,
Russia, also serve as Conference chairs.
--OVER--
Joseph D.
Miller,
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
reports on extensive studies of the Viking Labeled Release (LR) biology results
and new information that strengthens the possibility that the LR detected life
on the Red Planet 25 years ago. In one
segment of the LR data, the response curve fits the pattern of daylight and
dark on Mars in the manner of a circadian rhythm. A circadian rhythm implies life.
David
Warmflash,
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, reported that the molecular analysis
(GCMS) instrument that dismissed the LR Viking life detection results was
inadequate. It was not sensitive enough
to detect the organics that scientists think must be on Mars. He urges that the LR results now be
re-examined for the possibility that they, indeed, document the presence of
life on Mars.
Gilbert V.
Levin, CEO,
Spherix Incorporated, Beltsville, Maryland, and the LR experimenter on Viking,
tackles one of the main arguments against his results—that oxides caused the
positive reaction in the LR experiment.
He reports that of the 28 non-biological explanations published over the
last 25 years, not one has adequately reproduced the LR results. In addition, he reports that direct evidence
from Viking, just now disclosed, shows a lack of oxides on Mars. A magnet experiment on the Lander could
determine the oxidative state of the surface of Mars. If it picked up substantial material, a highly oxidizing state
would be ruled out. The report on
mission results showed that the magnets did pick up surface materials,
information that has been overlooked since 1976.
In a second paper, Dr. Levin presents the scientific
logic for life on Mars that he proposes could have easily come from Earth, if
from nowhere else. He reports that
“Scientific findings . . . over the past several years have increased the
probability for life on Mars. Discoveries have revealed terrestrial organisms
flourishing in environments thought hostile and barren of life. Experiments with extremophile organisms,
including some of those newly discovered, have demonstrated their extraordinary
and unanticipated hardiness, including under conditions comparable to or
approaching those on present-day Mars. Microorganisms subjected to extreme g
forces survived shock as severe as meteoric impact. Calculations and experiments based on Viking data allow for water
to be liquid on the surface of Mars for biologically significant periods. Direct observations of Mars by subsequent
missions support this likelihood. These
new developments provide a workable Panspermia model for the transport,
survival and growth of terrestrial life on Mars . . . Organisms transported to
Mars from Earth and/or from other sources may have been responsible for the
positive results returned from Mars by the Viking Labeled Release experiment in
1978.” He recommends a simple return
experiment, a modification of his original LR, to confirm the earlier results.
Copies of the full papers by Levin and Miller are available
from Spherix.
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