ALH84001, the meteorite from Mars thought to carry proof of the existence microscopic Martians, is losing some of its luster. Discovered in Antartica back in 1993, the four-pound meteorite riddled with wormy blobs resembling bacterial colonies, was hailed as turning point in human history by the late, great Carl Sagan "if proven right". NASA officials were equally impressed calling it the scientific discovery of the century.

That was then. A decade later, the results remain unverified while skeptics continue to find non-biological explanations for every piece of evidence presented back in August 6, 1996. "We certainly have not convinced the community, and that's been a little bit disappointing," said David McKay, a NASA biochemist and leader of the team that discovered the rock.

Ironically, David's own brother and fellow NASA scientist - Gordon and his team managed to cook up a batch of magnetite grains very similar to the ones in ALH84001. The team also successfully incorporated the magnetite grains into balls of carbonate like the ones in the Martian rock. This finally settled the argument on whether a non-biological process could have produced the so-called organic blobs.

But despite the mounting evidence against life on Mars, the ALH84001 saga is not a waste of time. The debate over it helped researchers develop standards for evaluating the presence of life in other Martian meteorites or a sample from the red planet. Thanks to the Great Martian Debate, scientists now know exactly where on the red planet they would scoop up a sample, given the chance. And the ALH84001 team's technical paper practically created exobiology, the study of potential life on other planets.

In fact, the debate is far from over. Last March, David McKay presented microscopic images of the Nakhla meteorite, another Martian specimen, resembling pits created by earthling bacteria that eat the volcanic rock of the sea floor. But because the Nakhla meteorite comes from a time when the Mars was as frigid and inhospitable to life as it is today, the scientific community isn't doing much buzzing. 

However, new Martian meteorites turn up almost every year and sooner or later 4.5 billion-year-old piece of the red planet is going to be discovered. Maybe that would prove that there were indeed Martians.