Mars: The Living Planet

With the astonishing new photos from the Mars Pathfinder mission, the timing is right for a new book about life on Mars. Unfortunately, this is the wrong book. Science journalist DiGregorio recounts a story that begins with the dramatic 1976 claim--followed by an equally dramatic retraction--that the ""Labeled Release"" (LR) experiment on the Viking Lander mission had found micro-organisms in Martian soil. The protagonists are Gilbert V. Levin, principal investigator on the LR study, and Levin's primary associate, Patricia Ann Straat. To this day, Levin and Straat maintain that their results point strongly toward present life on Mars. The majority of their colleagues argue that the LR and other Viking results can be explained by an unexpected soil chemistry. Nevertheless, new discoveries about life in extreme environments on and beneath the Earth's surface, plus the startling NASA announcement last August of possible microbial fossils in a meteorite from Mars, give Levin and Straat new credibility. DiGregorio, having painstakingly researched the debate, has a wealth of science to present--but he focuses on government and academic politics instead. He postulates a well-organized conspiracy to hide the truth from the world and to oppress those who try to bring it to light, and so he alienates readers seeking new insight into one of humanity's oldest questions. The book's saving graces are its last two chapters, written by Levin and Straat. Those chapters serve as corrective lenses to DiGregorio's vision, enabling readers to glimpse more clearly the fascinating scientific controversy. Illustrations. (Aug.)