Abstract
If the Viking labeled-release experiment on Mars in 1976 had tested glucose optical isomers separately, it might have avoided lingering doubts about its apparently positive results suggesting biological activity, say microbiologist Henry J. Sun of the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas, Nev., and his collaborators. Some scientists say that experiments at two different landing sites detected life, whereas others believe that chemical oxidants in soils merely mimicked microbial activity. However, in recent earthly simulations, microbial specimens consumed only D-glucose, not its L isomer, whereas chemical oxidants such as permanganate showed no preference between these two mirror-image sugars, they report in a recent issue of Astrobiology. Thus, they recommend conducting such a chirality-based experiment on a future Mars mission.
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