For millennia we believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Even the scientists and learned people of the time held the belief. Galileo proved them wrong. This week comes confirmation of the fact that everything is a theory waiting to be disproved.
Thirty years ago we sent the Viking landers to Mars. One of the aims of the missions was to prove whether there was life in the soil there. After experimenting with the soil, the conclusion was that since there were no organic molecules found in the soil, there was no life; the assumption being that life in other worlds must be based on life in this world, i.e., it must be made of organic matter.
I don't know why but recently scientists did the same tests on earth that were done on Mars in 1976. They tested soil from Antarctica and a Chilean desert. And, surprise! The experiment said that these earth soils contained no organic molecules. Ergo, life does not exist on the earth! So, somehow the Martian experiments were flawed in some way.
In fairness, one of the three experiments conducted on Mars suggested that there was biological activity, but this was not followed up.
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