Word: barghoorn
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Elso S. Barghoorn, Fisher Professor of Natural History and a member of the exobiology panel of the American Academy of Science's Space Sciences Board that was established in 1958 to advise NASA, said yesterday, it is "certainly an inorganic reaction" which is causing the release of oxygen...
...oxygen could not have been produced by photosynthesis which can only occur in the presence of light because light was absent from the experiment which detected the oxygen, Barghoorn said. He added that water was present when the oxygen was produced...
...Barghoorn said the production of oxygen "is a mystery." At two meetings of the exo-biology panel last year and this past March at which possible problems with the biology experiments on board the spacecraft were discussed there was never any suggestion that oxygen would be released...
Goody said the latter two experiments are not showing any reactions that require a biological explanation. Despite conditions which "would be amenable to life," Barghoorn said, no evidence of life has yet been found...
...Barghoorn added that it is possible that life once existed on Mars but is now extinct. The only way to detect that possibility would be to bring rocks from Mars back to Earth. He said we now have the technology for such a mission but it will probably not be launched for at least another decade...