• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Mushrooms on Mars

Gord_in_Toronto

Penultimate Amazing
Gord_in_Toronto
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
26,457
Scientists Believe These Photos Show Mushrooms on Mars—and Proof of Life

https://www.popularmechanics.com/sp...5/mushrooms-on-mars-nasa-photos-life-on-mars/

Could there be mushrooms on Mars? In a new paper, an international team of scientists from countries including the U.S., France, and China have gathered and compared photographic evidence they claim shows fungus-like objects growing on the Red Planet.

In their paper, which appears in Scientific Research Publishing’s Advances in Microbiology, the scientists analyze images taken by NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, plus the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera. The objects in question show “chalky-white colored spherical shaped specimens,” which the Mars Opportunity team initially said was a mineral called hematite.

Later studies refuted the hematite claim. Soon, some scientists coined the term “Martian mushrooms” to describe the mysterious objects, because of how they resemble lichens and mushrooms, while in another study, fungi and lichen experts classified the spheres as “puffballs”—a white, spherical fungus belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota found on Earth.
Click to expand...

Most IMPORTANT NEWS of the millennium or . . . ???

I wonder if they sauté well?
 
Enh. It's behind a reg wall. I don't respect Popular Mechanics enough to go there for this story.

Gord, your quote mentions several studies, including a paper published in Advances in Microbiology. Does the PopMech article happen to provide links or full citations for any of these stories?

I wouldn't mind reading the science itself, in the scientists' own words.
 
Oh ffs. They're not fungii, they've just been given these labels because they resemble them in shape.

I imagine we all know this, but idiots out there will just pick up the whole mushroom business and run with it.
 
GlennB said:
Oh ffs. They're not fungii, they've just been given these labels because they resemble them in shape.

I imagine we all know this, but idiots out there will just pick up the whole mushroom business and run with it.
Click to expand...

Apparently fungus experts have made a positive identification. Which would be huge if true. So huge that it's kind of depressing that Gord has gone with PopMech, of all things, rather than trying to track down the primary document itself.
 
Hmm, the photos where supposedly the "mushrooms" increase in size and number after 3 days seems like it might be explained by some of the sand blowing away, revealing more of them.
 
And the rebuttal: Science Alert
While NASA itself hasn't responded to these new claims, its scientists have already researched the phenomenon you can see in the photo above.

Instead of mushrooms, NASA calls them 'blueberries', but unlike the authors of this new paper, no one at the space agency actually thinks these tiny spheres are a sign of life, let alone a growing fruit or vegetable.

In 2004, the Opportunity rover discovered millions of these 'blueberries', and upon analysis they were determined to be composed of the iron oxide, hematite.
Click to expand...
 
The headline made me do a doubletake when I saw it in my google news feed, but about 1/2 second later, I realized it was down near the bottom of the page.

Fairly depressing that a magazine like Popular Mechanics would stoop so low. (I know, not out of character, unfortunately. I just think it ought to be. I remember when I thought of Popular Mechanics as a science magazine. I was young. Have they always been this kind to woo? And I just didn't notice as a teenager?) I wonder where they dug up the "scientists" mentioned in the headline.
 
Last edited:
theprestige said:
Enh. It's behind a reg wall. I don't respect Popular Mechanics enough to go there for this story.

Gord, your quote mentions several studies, including a paper published in Advances in Microbiology. Does the PopMech article happen to provide links or full citations for any of these stories?

I wouldn't mind reading the science itself, in the scientists' own words.
Click to expand...
It's not for me, there's a popup but if u click on it it goes away, then u can continue reading.
 
B.E.A.D.S.
Brain Electroencephalographic Activity Deficiency Syndrome
in Science Reporting and in the scientific community.
 
I think it's like, wouldn't that be so cool! Then you think it would be so easy to check and obviously they aren't mushrooms. :) :(
 
GlennB said:
Oh ffs. They're not fungii, they've just been given these labels because they resemble them in shape.

I imagine we all know this, but idiots out there will just pick up the whole mushroom business and run with it.
Click to expand...

Well, you're not being much of a fun guy are you?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom