Scientists Claim to Spot Fungus Growing on Mars in NASA Rover Photos

[jpak]

https://futurism.com/scientists-fungus-growing-mars

The hunt for life on Mars continues, with NASA’s latest rover Perseverance using its scientific instrumentation to scan the Jezero Crater, an area believed to be a dried up ancient lake, for any signs of ancient microbial life.

But according to an international team of researchers, the space agencies other rovers may have already found signs of relatively advanced life — in the form of “fungus-like Martian specimens,” according to a new paper published in the journal Advances in Microbiology.

The team, which includes researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and George Mason University, believes they have found photographic evidence of a variety of fungus-like organisms, some resembling the shape of puffballs, a round cloud-like fungus found in abundance back here on Earth, on the Red Planet.

Their evidence: images taken by NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers as well as the agency’s HiRISE high-resolution camera attached to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



From the Daily Fail...





enjoy

[Effete Snob]

1. No, NASA photos are not evidence of fungus growing on Mars, sorry

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/no-nasa-photos-are-not-evidence-of-fungus-growing-on-mars-sorry/

The "mushrooms on Mars and fungi on Venus" theory is a worn out, debunked idea that appears like clockwork, about once a year. The headlines certainly are interesting -- imagine if we found fungi on Mars or Venus! It would literally rewrite our ideas about life in the cosmos -- but the articles rarely interrogate the scientific evidence for the wild claims.

[jpak]

2. This was from a peer reviewed journal article

Not Facebook or TikTok

[Effete Snob]

3. That's not true

You didn’t bother to read the article.

....

Advances in Microbiology is a relatively obscure journal published by Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP), which is headquartered in China and has previously been caught out for republishing scientific articles, according to Nature. It has been accused of being a predatory publisher, charging scientists fees to be published in its journals without checking the quality of the submitted papers, in the past.

...

After being alerted to the new paper on Wednesday, I sent emails to the associate editors-in-chief of Advances in Microbiology, asking for clarification around the peer review process. They have not responded to requests for comment.

[jpak]

4. I read it and it had nothing to do with fungi on Venus

[ret5hd]

6. Replying so I can read of any clarification ...

thanks for the effort.

[jpak]

8. That post was lifted from an article in C/NET

Without a link

[Effete Snob]

10. The link was in the previous post

This punctuation "..." is called an ellipsis. It is used when one is quoting from other material and editing for relevant parts.

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Maybe a crystal or crystalline solid? Neat anyways. Gotta love that science! Go NASA!

[Warpy]

7. There is probably abundajt microbial life there

in cracks, deep caves, and lava tubes. I'd be more surprised if it's not there.

Fungi are special. Didn't see that one coming.

[Effete Snob]

9. The fungus on Mars and the man who thinks he found life on other planets

https://www.cnet.com/features/the-fungus-on-mars-and-the-man-who-thinks-he-found-life-on-other-planets/



Since then, Joseph has rarely been heard from. Outside of a now-defunct YouTube channel, which amassed millions of views on its videos about ancient history, alien life and war atrocities, he maintains no social media accounts. He is not affiliated with any scientific institutions or universities bar the "Brain Research Laboratory," which he established himself in 1986, and "Astrobiology Associates of Northern California San Francisco." Neither have an online presence or a physical address and Joseph's name appears only four times in PubMed, an online repository of research papers maintained by the National Institutes of Health -- all before 1989.

...

Over the last decade, Joseph and JOC have mostly been ignored by NASA and by the scientific community. Very few scientists take the alien fungi claims seriously, but Joseph's work has been highlighted in UK tabloids, RT and many well-meaning science news sites since February 2019. Some have touted Joseph's websites as "scientific journals" and even confused Joseph's vanity website with legitimate, similarly named journals. One painted Joseph as someone trying to "defy the odds."

And that's where the danger lies.

Astrobiology, the search for and study of extraterrestrial life, is a serious scientific endeavor. NASA has an astrobiology program, and searching for life is a critical part of its Mars exploration program. And although the public seems resistant to fanciful claims of fungal spores on Mars or lichen on Venus, they haven't gone away. If anything, social media seems to have made us more gullible. As crank, fringe theories start to gather steam in honest peer-reviewed journals, the public's perception of astrobiology can quickly be muddied.