Are we alone in the universe?Mars has always seemed where we were likeliest to find the answer. Yet, since the Viking landers touched down in 1976, no mission has returned to the Martian surface to search directly for life living there now. Instead we’re searching the moons of outer planets, or the atmospheres of planets many light years away.In Meet the Neighbors, pioneering astrobiochemist Steven A. Benner argues that this was a historic mistake....

**'At last, a sensible and penetrating look at the possibility of life on Mars ... Bravo to Benner, one of the world’s most accomplished chemists, for putting the possibility of extant Martian life back on the scientific agenda'Paul Davies, author of Quantum 2.0Are we alone in the universe?**Mars has always seemed where we were likeliest to find the answer. Yet, since the Viking landers touched down in 1976, no mission has returned to the Martian surface to ...