Maybe This Is Why
A while back, I wondered why what could be a huge breakthrough was being downplayed:
If, like me, you suspect that there is probably life elsewhere in the universe, what does it say about how abundant life may be if we just happen to find some on, oh, you know...the next planet over? Maybe it's just a coincidence. Or maybe it's not that big a deal because both Earth and Mars are in the orbital sweet spot for life in this solar system.
Doesn't matter. It's a big deal. If this pans out, we now know of life on twice as many planets as we did before. And we shouldn't go dissing microbes. The individual cells that make up our complex, sophisticated bodies owe quite a bit to single-celled organisms. In fact, it's what they used to be. Finding microbes on one planet pegs the odds of eventually finding wookies — or some such — elsewhere much, much higher.
Granted, there's a tendency to be a little twice shy about this whole "life on Mars" thing. Actually, we may even be thrice shy. Seems like the first scoop of soil that the Viking lander analyzed just about proved that there was life on Mars. Followed by some major backpedaling. Then there was that Martian meteor with fossils in it a few years ago. Yup, more backpedaling.
Maybe the MSM is playing it safe. No harm in being cautious, I suppose.
Well, Seth Shostak of SETI has some thoughts on why scientists (although the same might be true for the media) shouldn't let themselves get too carried away with enthusiasm over these things:
The recent brouhaha over whether there's compelling evidence for life on Mars offers a stark lesson about research life: a major scientific discovery is a temptress as beguiling, and as dangerous, as the Sirens that beckoned Ulysses.
To learn something both important and new not only guarantees a scientist steady employment and a wall-load of awards; it can permanently fix his name in the big book of human achievement. It's immortality, of a sort.
On the other hand, a claim that turns out to be mistaken is often an indelible black mark, leading to criticism, ridicule, and a brisk ride to oblivion.
Read the whole thing. Shostak provides some great examples of blunders on the frontier of scientific discovery, including the cold fusion debacle (or was it?) a few years back.