Do you think there is life on Mars? Do you think Phoenix will find evidence of it? Now there's a blog that's trying to collect a snapshot of the opinions of scientists, amateurs, and everyday people. "Imminent Discovery" thinks Phoenix may find simple life. Finding this evidence will definitely become headlines… If it [...]

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Yes. No.

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For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?

I pessimistically predict that they (maybe not Phoenix, but maybe something else) will find some bacteria very similar to earth forms, which will launch a never-ending debate as to whether they were Martian forms that seeded earth, vice versa, some extra-solar sytem source that seeded both, or simply earth contamination that was brought to Mars by probes. After many years of fruitless debate, most will lean toward the last explanation but without the question ever being settled.

Nick

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Nick Theodorakis

I think there's life elsewhere in our solar system, quite possibly on Mars. But I don't think we'll ever get that one big Eureka! moment we where learn in an instant that there is absolutely positively life on Mars. The best we could hope for is to get some solid evidence that leads many to conclude there is life, but also realize there still exists a long process of scientific verification.

If it has a different origin from earth life it will be freaky different. For example there is no chance it will have earth type DNA. It is possible that mars life originated from freaky different earth life that has sinced died out on earth, but I think most people would be satisfied that freaky different life probably didn't originate on earth.

Phoenix is designed to look for evidence that the permafrost might have been habitable (liquid water and carbon), not for life, so I think the best we can hope for is detection of carbon compounds and some evidence that small amounts of water have formed either today or in the recent past. Right now I'm just hoping it touches down safely.

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For me it's enough for the garden to be beautifull; why do so many want to see fairies at the bottom?

Interesting angle, hadn't thought about that possibility.
So even if it's completely different from any earth-life we know of, we can still never be sure that it didn't originate here.