There is also an alternate explanation that was replicated in the lab: <a href="http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050325blueberries.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050325blueberr...</a><p><pre><code> He obtained a quantity of hematite and
blasted it with an electric arc.
The results are seen in the right
half of the image above. The embedded
spheres created by the arc appear to
replicate many of the features of the
blueberries on Mars. No other laboratory
process has achieved a similar result.</code></pre>
"(But geologists <i>have</i> shown that the more a guess is repeated, the more it’s apt to be called a fact.)"<p>Heh.<p>Anyway, the blueberries have come up again the last couple of weeks as Opportunity has just run into new rocks with similar little round things in abundance. Maybe not exactly the same things, but similar.<p>You can see some of the new ones on the rocks here:
<a href="http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p3062.html" rel="nofollow">http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p3062.html</a><p>Microscopic Imager of some of them here:
<a href="http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m3064.html" rel="nofollow">http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m3064.html</a>
It seems like everything we see "could be proof of life on Mars". It's great there's excitement, but it would be even better if the media didn't cry wolf every time.
Could someone please explain to me how such conditions could be present on the surface of mars or the deserts here on planet earth to trigger the same results as the lab results?