Goodbye

green men

SCIENTISTS' discovery of evidence of life on Mars is about "little brown bacteria, not little green men" - Professor David Norman, of the Daresbury Laboratory told the WARRINGTON GUARDIAN.

But it could change the way we think about the beginning of life on earth, according to the Professor.

He is assistant director of Daresbury's Synchrotron department, which would have been capable of analysing the piece of rock from Mars that led to Tuesday's dramatic announcement in America. Scientists believe that single cell life may have existed on Mars more than three billion years ago.

"It is exciting. We are fascinated. I think it is good news that people are so interested in science" said Professor Norman, who admitted he would love to get his hands on the Mars rock.

"We would like to see it, but that will probably not happen. There will be hundreds of people in the queue to study it."

He said the discovery would help people to understand how the universe and the planetary systems evolved. "It appears to show that bacteria have existed, probably three and a half billion years ago. It is highly unlikely there is life on Mars now. We are looking at the lowest level of life ... a few molecules. Mars has no atmosphere like the earth. Everything has got a lot colder. There would be nothing there for living creatures or plants."

The Professor's department is no stranger to controversial rock. It examined a piece of blue stone found in Morroco by a tourist earlier this year, which was previously unknown to science.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.