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Other Work
NEW RESEARCH SHAKES THEORY OF LIFE ON MARS;
ROCK HEAVILY CONTAMINATED WITH EARTHLY SUBSTANCES
By Kathy Sawyer
The Washington Post | Friday, Jan. 16, 1998, pg. A03
The world’s most famous meteorite is much more heavily contaminated with earthly substances than previously known, according to new research that shakes—but does not eliminate—the hypothesis that the rock may contain signs of ancient Martian organisms.
A whopping 80 percent of the potato-sized rock’s organic materials—that is, the various components that may be related to biological activity—come from terrestrial contamination, most likely seepage from Antarctic ice meltwater where it was found, separate teams led by Timothy Jull, of the university of Arizona in Tucson, and Jeff Bada of the Scripps Institution of Oceanopgraphy, near San Diego, reported yesterday. . .