Posthuman Blues

NASA has issued the following statement regarding recent independent studies of potential biomarkers in the Martian atmosphere. Is it just me, or does the first paragraph read like Japlish?

"News reports on February 16, 2005, that NASA scientists from Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have found strong evidence that life may exist on Mars are incorrect.

"NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any scientific journal asserting martian life."

ESA Says Life Likely on Mars--NASA Says No

"In a stunning press release distributed by NASA today, the Space Agency claims that its scientists are not, in fact, preparing any report that suggests that there may be life on Mars."

Well, of course. Life on Mars doesn't exactly agree with NASA's mission timetable; we're still supposed to be marveling at rocks. The US space agency will announce life on Mars only when it is politically expedient to do so.