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The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets
In this riveting book, acclaimed journalist Kathy Sawyer reveals the deepest mysteries of space and some of the most disturbing truths on Earth. The Rock from Mars is the story of how two planets and the spheres of politics and science all collided at the end of the twentieth century.
It began sixteen million years ago. An asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth’s gravity onto an icy wilderness near the southern pole. There, in 1984, a geologist named Roberta Score spotted it, launching it on a roundabout path to fame and controversy.
In its new home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years, a victim of mistaken identity. Then, in 1993, the geochemist Donald “Duck” Mittlefehldt, unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, specialist Chris Romanek detected signs of once-living organisms on the meteorite. And the obscure rock became a rock star.
But how did nine respected investigators come to make such startling claims about the rock that they triggered one of the most venomous scientific battles in modern memory? The narrative traces the steps that led to this risky move and follows the rippling impact on the scientists’ lives, the future of space exploration, the search for life on Mars, and the struggle to understand the origins of life on Earth.
From the second the story broke in Science magazine in 1996, it spawned waves of excitement, envy, competitive zeal, and calculation. In academia, in government agencies, in laboratories around the world, and even in the Oval Office–where an inquisitive President Clinton had received the news in secret– players of all kinds plotted their next moves. Among David McKay, the dynamic geologist associated with the first moon landing, who labored to achieve at long last a second success; Bill Schopf of UCLA, a researcher determined to remain at the top of his field and the first to challenge McKay’s claims; Dan Goldin, the boss of NASA; and Dick Morris, the controversial presidential adviser who wanted to use the story for Clinton’s reelection and unfortunately made sure it ended up in the diary of a $200-an-hour call girl.
Impeccably researched and thrillingly involving, Kathy Sawyer’s The Rock from Mars is an exemplary work of modern nonfiction, a vivid account of the all-too-human high-stakes drive to learn our true place in the cosmic scheme.
It began sixteen million years ago. An asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth’s gravity onto an icy wilderness near the southern pole. There, in 1984, a geologist named Roberta Score spotted it, launching it on a roundabout path to fame and controversy.
In its new home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years, a victim of mistaken identity. Then, in 1993, the geochemist Donald “Duck” Mittlefehldt, unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, specialist Chris Romanek detected signs of once-living organisms on the meteorite. And the obscure rock became a rock star.
But how did nine respected investigators come to make such startling claims about the rock that they triggered one of the most venomous scientific battles in modern memory? The narrative traces the steps that led to this risky move and follows the rippling impact on the scientists’ lives, the future of space exploration, the search for life on Mars, and the struggle to understand the origins of life on Earth.
From the second the story broke in Science magazine in 1996, it spawned waves of excitement, envy, competitive zeal, and calculation. In academia, in government agencies, in laboratories around the world, and even in the Oval Office–where an inquisitive President Clinton had received the news in secret– players of all kinds plotted their next moves. Among David McKay, the dynamic geologist associated with the first moon landing, who labored to achieve at long last a second success; Bill Schopf of UCLA, a researcher determined to remain at the top of his field and the first to challenge McKay’s claims; Dan Goldin, the boss of NASA; and Dick Morris, the controversial presidential adviser who wanted to use the story for Clinton’s reelection and unfortunately made sure it ended up in the diary of a $200-an-hour call girl.
Impeccably researched and thrillingly involving, Kathy Sawyer’s The Rock from Mars is an exemplary work of modern nonfiction, a vivid account of the all-too-human high-stakes drive to learn our true place in the cosmic scheme.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 21, 2019
In Antarctica, a woman named Robbie Score made a surprising discovery. There to collect meteorites, she found one that came, not from the usual comets or space junk, but had been dislodged, millions of years ago, from Mars. What followed was a scientific dispute that still hasn't been resolved.
Examined by various special instruments, the rock seemed to bear traces of long-ago life. Was this proof that Earth wasn't the only place in our solar system life had developed? Well, that depends who you ask, and there's a lot of debate to this day. The disagreement has spanned decades, and there's no resolution in sight.
Not only does the book cover the disputes among the scientists, it tackles some broader issues as well. There's no real consensus on what qualifies as "life." Whether or not this piece of Mars ends up proving life existed there once, it spurred a lot of fine research. It's interesting seeing the ripple effects.
Parts of the book are a bit dry, and we get a lot detours into the personal lives of many of those involved, which I'm not sure we needed. It's an interesting story, though, and makes you think. I liked it, but I could see some finding it boring.
Examined by various special instruments, the rock seemed to bear traces of long-ago life. Was this proof that Earth wasn't the only place in our solar system life had developed? Well, that depends who you ask, and there's a lot of debate to this day. The disagreement has spanned decades, and there's no resolution in sight.
Not only does the book cover the disputes among the scientists, it tackles some broader issues as well. There's no real consensus on what qualifies as "life." Whether or not this piece of Mars ends up proving life existed there once, it spurred a lot of fine research. It's interesting seeing the ripple effects.
Parts of the book are a bit dry, and we get a lot detours into the personal lives of many of those involved, which I'm not sure we needed. It's an interesting story, though, and makes you think. I liked it, but I could see some finding it boring.
March 20, 2023
A very good, careful review of the history, science, people and effects of the meteorite that proved there are organics on Mars, introduced an argument about whether it provided evidence for early life on Mars, and stimulated a lot of very useful science.
This is very good science journalism, with footnotes that put an academic book to shame. Sawyer is very careful to explain almost every conclusion and generalization she makes. As she admits, she did this work because she couldn't understand how scientists couldn't come to a conclusion about this rock. She does a very good job, mainly in chronological order, of showing (a) why we find meteorites in Antarctica, (b) how we know that some of these come from Mars, (c) why the NASA scientists working on ALH840001 came to feel they had to push the envelope by announcing their judgement that it showed evidence for primitive life on ancient Mars, and (d) how the debate continued in a very fair picture of "science as she is done".
Despite the impression of many who remember the 1996 announcement, the NASA team did this as good science, and got their peer-reviewed paper ready long before making a press conference. In science, making a press conference is usually taken as a sign of bad science. In this case, it was inevitable, and I think a case can be made that they did as well as they could. This is no "cold fusion" announcement. I'm impressed by the care with which they did their work.
I think the book does a real service by showing how a controversial claim, if backed with a good case and arguments (but without certainty) can stimulate science effectively. The organics they found in the Martian meteor were an important first in its own right, and they could have stopped there. But they followed their own honest opinions and showed why they thought a biologic origin was likely. This has stimulated changes in our robotic exploration of Mars, in the study of early life on earth, in geochemistry and chemical biology. While it is still possible to argue about whether ALH80004 shows proof of biological activity, arguments now are informed by a much more robust science about the signs of primitive life, and much better tools for electron scanning microscopy at this level -- none of which would likely be at their current state without this work.
I also liked how Sawyer described the way that the lives of the scientists involved were affected by being part of these arguments after 1996. She avoids the cliches of martyrs and authority figures, showing how doing science affects the people who do it without turning it into a fight of right and wrong. It is a fight among peers for finding out what is right.
I liked the book a lot. I give it 5 stars. It was not a page turner, nor a simplified view of science, but one of the best I've ever seen of how science really works, how controversy stimulates science without falling into cliches of outrageous claims, and how people do science when they are trying their best.
This is very good science journalism, with footnotes that put an academic book to shame. Sawyer is very careful to explain almost every conclusion and generalization she makes. As she admits, she did this work because she couldn't understand how scientists couldn't come to a conclusion about this rock. She does a very good job, mainly in chronological order, of showing (a) why we find meteorites in Antarctica, (b) how we know that some of these come from Mars, (c) why the NASA scientists working on ALH840001 came to feel they had to push the envelope by announcing their judgement that it showed evidence for primitive life on ancient Mars, and (d) how the debate continued in a very fair picture of "science as she is done".
Despite the impression of many who remember the 1996 announcement, the NASA team did this as good science, and got their peer-reviewed paper ready long before making a press conference. In science, making a press conference is usually taken as a sign of bad science. In this case, it was inevitable, and I think a case can be made that they did as well as they could. This is no "cold fusion" announcement. I'm impressed by the care with which they did their work.
I think the book does a real service by showing how a controversial claim, if backed with a good case and arguments (but without certainty) can stimulate science effectively. The organics they found in the Martian meteor were an important first in its own right, and they could have stopped there. But they followed their own honest opinions and showed why they thought a biologic origin was likely. This has stimulated changes in our robotic exploration of Mars, in the study of early life on earth, in geochemistry and chemical biology. While it is still possible to argue about whether ALH80004 shows proof of biological activity, arguments now are informed by a much more robust science about the signs of primitive life, and much better tools for electron scanning microscopy at this level -- none of which would likely be at their current state without this work.
I also liked how Sawyer described the way that the lives of the scientists involved were affected by being part of these arguments after 1996. She avoids the cliches of martyrs and authority figures, showing how doing science affects the people who do it without turning it into a fight of right and wrong. It is a fight among peers for finding out what is right.
I liked the book a lot. I give it 5 stars. It was not a page turner, nor a simplified view of science, but one of the best I've ever seen of how science really works, how controversy stimulates science without falling into cliches of outrageous claims, and how people do science when they are trying their best.
January 30, 2015
I really didn't remember when this hit the news in 1996 (but I had a newborn and a 2 year old so my attention was elsewhere!), so I wanted to finish the book just to learn more about the whole story. I wouldn't call it riveting. It started out pretty interesting, but then began to lose my interest.
February 15, 2016
The personal details about the people involved are interesting, but as a scientist, I don't need to know how McKay decorates his house. I also found the parts about Schopf to be more than a little biased.
May 22, 2008
Covers the intra-institutional tensions and conflict over ALH84001, the rock from Mars that some contend carries exobiological fossils.
Lots of political science in this one.
Lots of political science in this one.
December 6, 2010
Not as quickly moving as I would like. Also, not as gripping a story.
September 1, 2015
Will inspire the anger of creationists but add to the knowledge of all the rest of us.
April 24, 2021
A woman finds a rock in 1984 Antarctica along with other supposed meteors and it spends a DECADE in storage before it is examined and thought to be a portion of the red planet MARS! It is examined and a paper written and submitted to be examined, its so-called importance reaches the White House.
Eventually others examine the evidence and the only way to determine science is to debate. B/W images.
Eventually others examine the evidence and the only way to determine science is to debate. B/W images.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews