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"I'm now convinced that Mars is
inhabited by a race of demented landscape gardeners," Sir
Arthur C. Clarke announced recently.
The author of
2001: A Space Odyssey was only half-joking. He claims that an
image produced by the Mars Global Surveyor satellite shows
"large areas of vegetation . . . like banyan trees." Most
experts dismiss the idea. But Popular Science loves a free
thinker, especially one as talented and charming as Sir
Arthur. We questioned him in Sri Lanka via e-mail.
> Nicole Foulke
Popular
Science What makes you so confident there is life on
Mars?
Arthur C. Clarke The image is so striking
that there is no need to say anything about it -- it's
obviously vegetation to any unbiased eye.
PS
What about animal life?
AC If there is
vegetation, it seems probable there are other life-forms as
well.
PS Few experts agree with
you.
AC Remember how a certain Astronomer Royal
said that space flight was 'utter bilge'?
[Indeed,
Richard van der Reit Wooley said so in 1956 -- Ed.] But they
are right to be cautious -- we still don't have 100 percent
proof. I think it's in the high nineties!
PS Why
are you so passionate about this?
AC Because
nothing could be more important than the discovery of other
life-forms. It's getting lonely down here.
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