Over six years, Viking 1 and its successor returned more than 50,000 images, and mapped 97% of the Martian surface. Their research shapes our understanding of space to this day, in particular their life-detection experiments. \u201cNo bodies, no life,\u201d declared Viking chief scientist Gerald Soffen at the time. As Nasa\u2019s website states, Viking \u201cprovided no definitive evidence for the presence of living microorganisms\u201d.<\/p>\n
But what if they got that wrong, and for 50 years we\u2019ve had the evidence to prove it? That\u2019s the claim of Steven Benner, chemist and former Harvard professor, in his new book, Meet the Neighbours<\/a>. The repercussions, he argues, are vast. For today\u2019s First Edition, we ask: is there life on Mars? Before that, a roundup of your biggest earthling stories from the weekend.<\/p>\n Weekend roundup<\/p>\n UK politics | Andy Burnham is expected to scrap<\/a> Keir Starmer\u2019s plans for digital ID cards in a \u201creset of priorities\u201d when he enters Downing Street. The new Labour leader plans to redirect the resources earmarked for the scheme towards tackling the cost of living, his team indicated.<\/p>\n Ukraine | Russia has carried out one of its biggest-ever ballistic missile attacks<\/a> on Kyiv, launching a five-hour raid that left at least one person dead and seven injured, with fires and damage across the city.<\/p>\n Iran | The US launched a ninth night of strikes<\/a> targeting Iran early Monday, after announcing the death of another American service member, as the price of Brent crude oil climbed above $90 a barrel, the highest level since June.<\/p>\n Africa | Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility<\/a> in \u2060Kenya after the US government introduced travel \u2060restrictions, the head of a US charity employing them told Reuters.<\/p>\n Europe | Hungary\u2019s president, Tam\u00e1s Sulyok, has agreed to step down<\/a> after signing a constitutional amendment passed by the ruling Tisza party of the prime minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar.<\/p>\n In depth: \u2018They thought they found no organic materials\u2019The Viking 1 probe sent back the first colour images of Mars, but, it was believed at the time, no definitive signs of life. Photograph: MPI\/Getty Images<\/p>\n It\u2019s tricky, Benner tells me, for scientists to claim they have found something. Much safer to state they haven\u2019t. Imagine you\u2019d discovered something unprecedented and revolutionary. \u201cWould you hesitate to announce it to the world? What if two weeks later, some grad student pointed out your basic error?\u201d Scientists like him, Benner says, are \u201cmore afraid of being called out for a false-positive than for a false-negative\u201d.<\/p>\n In his view, this explains the half-century of science that states extant life was not found on Mars<\/a>. Over decades, Benner has come to the opposite conclusion.<\/p>\n His academic credentials are unimpeachable. Benner holds degrees from Yale and Harvard, and worked at the latter, alongside institutions including the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He is now the director of a non-profit research organisation, and has also worked with Nasa. <\/p>\n In fact, it was while peer-reviewing grants for the US space agency at their Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston that Benner made, what he claims, was a major discovery while flicking through the original 1976 Viking mission logs in their library. \u201cThings had quite clearly been missed.\u201d<\/p>\n The experiments<\/p>\n The Viking missions conducted various experiments to test for life on Mars. Some, such as those searching for microbial metabolism (microbes digesting food) and for microbes performing photosynthesis, are widely accepted to have offered positive results. \u201cThese experiments discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil,\u201d says Nasa.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then Viking used Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to look for organic material in the soil,\u201d Benner says. Put simply, the GC-MS process can identify and measure the concentration of certain chemicals in a sample. \u201cThey thought they found no organic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n This is what Benner disputes. \u201cReading the logs at Nasa in 1999, as a chemist it was clear the GC-MS had detected traces of organics in the Martian soil, but scientists could not explain them, and so dismissed them as a contaminant.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s much more to his argument. Decades later, in 2008, Nasa\u2019s Phoenix lander discovered perchlorates were present<\/a> in Martian soil. Perchlorates are chemicals which destroy organic materials when heated. The 1970s GC-MS experiment heated Martian soil to 500C. \u201cSo we now know this experiment would have destroyed most organic materials in the soil.\u201d (For any science-heads, this space.com piece<\/a> explores this in rich detail.)<\/p>\n The discovery?<\/p>\n If Benner is correct \u2013 and there is extant life on Mars \u2013 the consequences could be colossal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means one of two things,\u201d he argues. \u201cYou could have an independent genesis on Mars \u2013 a second origin of life.\u201d With Earth, we\u2019re one-for-one when it comes to planets like ours generating life. \u201cIf we get two for two, life origin on Mars and Earth, it suggests there is microbial life all over the galaxy.\u201d Only last week, scientists announced<\/a> they\u2019d identified another Earth-like planet outside our solar system.<\/p>\n \u201cIf your first casino hand is a straight flush, you\u2019re just lucky,\u201d is Benner\u2019s analogy. \u201cIf your second is also a straight flush, you know the deck is rigged. With life on Mars, we\u2019d conclude there is life on all these rocky planets.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s an alternative reading of his results: that any life on Mars is a result of interstellar panspermia, the exchange of material between planets. \u201cRocks hit Mars, get knocked out of the surface and hit Earth, and vice versa,\u201d says Benner. \u201cIf we still see extant life on Mars, we are saying that life is extremely resilient to planetary changes.\u201d Earth and Mars have hugely different atmospheres and environments. \u201cIf you have one planet seeding life to another planet, and it survives these dramatic changes, again we can expect there to be life on all sorts of rocky planets.\u201d<\/p>\n Life as we know it<\/p>\n Benner\u2019s case isn\u2019t that Viking found definitive proof of extant life on Mars. It\u2019s that the evidence against life is far weaker than received wisdom. Focus has therefore shifted since the Viking missions, turning to the search for water, habitability and signs of ancient life on Mars \u2013 which recent missions have detected<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of all the experiments that could have been done, had they properly identified microbial life on Mars,\u201d says Benner. \u201cInstead, we decided not to look for it. That was the decision of the Nasa Astrobiology Institute when it was inaugurated in the late 1990s.\u201d Benner worked there from 1999. \u201cWe were told no experiment will fly if it is going to look for extant life on Mars \u2013 the Nasa leadership interpreted Viking as a mistake or failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, the organisms we\u2019re discussing are microscopic in scale, but that belies their significance. \u201cMicrobial life has a lot in common with you and me,\u201d says Benner. \u201cIn fact, you have more microbe cells in you than you do person cells.\u201d What differentiates microbes from, say, a lump of rock, is their capacity for Darwinian evolution. The search for intelligent extraterrestrial life sounds the sexier pursuit, but \u201cwhat we\u2019re talking about here shapes our assessment of the prospect of finding it\u201d, Benner argues. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you that microbial life will with high probability evolve to intelligent life, but I can tell you this: you do not get intelligent life without it.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Not alone<\/p>\n Benner isn\u2019t the first to make a similar claim. Dr Gilbert V Levin, who designed one of the tests used on the Viking missions, spent decades arguing this case. He died in 2021<\/a> still resolute, despite being \u201cmarginalised, treated as goofy,\u201d says Benner. The late Mexican astrobiologist Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez agreed, finding soil in Chile\u2019s inhospitable Atacama Desert closely matched<\/a> that found on Mars and that Viking \u201cmay have been blind<\/a> to low levels of organics.\u201d In space circles, it\u2019s a hotly contested topic. Many textbooks today suggest that the Viking tests failed to find life, or were inconclusive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe community is divided,\u201d says Benner. \u201cSome say, \u2018Good guy, Steven. Well done for going out there and taking the arrows.\u2019 Others are worried about the impact on public perceptions of space. That if we say what\u2019s been unspoken, there\u2019ll be a backlash: it\u2019s Nasa trying to get money; a crackpot theory!\u201d<\/p>\n For now, Benner says, nobody has stepped forward to discredit or disprove his claims. \u201cThat\u2019s because most people in this community are geologists, or biologists, and are a little scared to venture into chemistry,\u201d he acknowledges. Nasa told me they don\u2019t comment on outside research. The European Space<\/a> Agency, I was told, was \u201cnot aware\u201d of Benner\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s up for the fight, if\/when it comes. \u201cI\u2019m not going to stop until [Nasa head honcho] Jared Isaacman goes on television and acknowledges the issue.\u201d Science, he concedes, isn\u2019t about total certainty. \u201cBut right now, nobody is questioning this. They have to be. I\u2019ve been polite for 25 years \u2013 now I\u2019m taking no prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n The week to come<\/p>\n Monday | Keir Starmer will visit King Charles to resign as prime minister before Andy Burnham meets the monarch, delivers his first speech as PM, and appoints his cabinet.<\/p>\n Wednesday | The third hearing of former Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who is facing \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d charges, is set to take place in a New York court.<\/p>\n Friday | International criminal court members vote on whether to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan for alleged sexual misconduct, which he denies.<\/p>\n What else we\u2019ve been enjoyingA sign saying \u2018Military Zone. No Access. Armed Surveillance\u2019, separates a public beach from a private one. The fence runs all the way down the beach to the water. Photograph: Gianni Cipriano\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Tobias Jones\u2019s long read<\/a> on the fight for Italy\u2019s beaches is a fascinating story that takes in organised crime, the military, arson and, er, chainsaws. Sam Coare, newsletters team<\/p>\n The Church of England\u2019s upper echelons are grappling with its stance on Palestine, and I found this report<\/a> from Aamna Mohdin on the unfolding debate fascinating. Michael<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were gonna emulate a director, you\u2019d emulate somebody whose movies aren\u2019t panned\u201d \u2013 Steve Rose\u2019s interview<\/a> with John Carpenter makes for a personable profile of the notoriously grumpy master of horror. Sam<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to First Edition<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n World Cup 2026Spain\u2019s Rodri lifts the trophy with teammates after winning the World Cup final. Photograph: Ashley Landis\/AP<\/p>\n Final | Spain won their second men\u2019s World Cup<\/a> after Ferran Torres\u2019s extra-time strike beat a battling Argentina side who had Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez sent off. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino were booed<\/a> as they took to the field for the presentation ceremony.<\/p>\n The spectacle | The World Cup concluded with a disorientating fever dream beneath a bright blue American sky, Nick Ames writes<\/a>, where football appeared a sideshow for a tournament nurtured to indulge the cult of the individual.<\/p>\n Fifa | Fifa has been accused<\/a> of providing an \u201copen door to fraud\u201d and allowing political influence to cast doubt on the integrity of the World Cup in a stinging rebuke by the Council of Europe\u2019s secretary general.<\/p>\n SportRyan Fox of New Zealand with the trophy after his victory on day four of the Open Golf Championship. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Golf | On a dramatic final day of the Open, Ryan Fox, son of a New Zealand rugby legend and grandson of a former Black Caps captain, emerged victorious<\/a>.<\/p>\n Formula One | Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix<\/a> for Mercedes but his title rival and teammate George Russell was knocked out on the opening lap after a clash with Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n Tour de France | Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour de France<\/a> on the approach to the climb of Plateau de Solaison, just hours after being woken up early on Sunday morning to undergo doping controls.<\/p>\n The front pages Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s front page today is \u201cTime for UK to face up to its challenges \u2013 Burnham\u201d. The Times says \u201cBurnham: My 10-year UK plan\u201d, the Telegraph\u2019s take is \u201cBurnham heralds new era of big state\u201d, and the i Paper writes \u201cBurnham pledges \u2018breathing room\u2019 to help UK on cost of living as he moves into No 10\u201d. The FT leads on \u201cBurnham seeks tight grip on spending with beefed-up control centre at No 10\u201d.<\/p>\n Still on the incoming PM, the Mail has \u201cBurnham doesn\u2019t speak for us, say voters in South\u201d, the Express says \u201cNew PM has no mandate to raise taxes again\u201d, the Mirror writes \u201cBurning ambition\u201d and the Sun leads on \u201cTurmoil\u201d. Lastly, Metro angles its splash on the return of England\u2019s footballers, writing \u201cWelcome home \u2026 there\u2019ve been a few changes\u201d.<\/p>\n Today in FocusProtesters calling for the closure of the The Bell Hotel, believed to be housing asylum seekers, gather outside the council offices in Epping in 2025. Photograph: Henry Nicholls\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The battle to reclaim Epping<\/p>\n Tim Burrows goes back to Epping in Essex one year after protesters<\/a> from across the country descended on the small town to demonstrate against asylum seekers being housed at the Bell hotel.<\/p>\n Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld Illustration: Tom GauldThe Upside<\/p>\n A bit of good news to remind you that the world\u2019s not all bad<\/p>\n \u2018We had no television, so I learned to look at the creatures around me\u2019 \u2026 Dino Martins holding a rainbow locust. Photograph: Courtesy of Harper Collins<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782341475_311_1000.jpg\")
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