alt Hacker NewsI don't think it was weak at all. We got two positive results from the Viking landers and then tried to explain them away. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence, which combined builds up a case.
The public believe we should be looking for cities and skeletons, when in fact we should be looking for extremophiles. It is possible that some of these are due to cross-contamination within the solar system (before human intervention), but that is another matter.
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nkrisc • yesterday at 11:05 PM
Two positive results that had non-biological explanations and a lack of any other significant evidence. Extreme skepticism is warranted.
The two Viking landers, 6500km apart, had positive results. That would suggest that life is widespread and close to the surface. But the atmosphere of Mars is in chemical equilibrium, which means life can't be widespread and close to the surface because it is not affecting the atmosphere. If life is present on Mars it would have to be deep underground, perhaps in a geothermally heated brine lake, which would be very hard to detect with current technology. The Viking data was probably non-biological, it really isn't strong evidence for life today.