In a bit of news that sounds right out of Star Trek, scientists at Oregon State University and University College London have devised an ultraviolet scanner that can identify organic matter in soils.

The ultraviolet light reacts with chemical compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are considered candidates for being one of the earliest forms of organic matter in the universe. PAHs are found on comets and meteorites, which has long fueled the theory that life on Earth actually came from space.

The researchers suggested using such an instrument on a Mars lander or rover to search for life. There are scheduled missions in 2009 and 2013, both of which are intended to search for life and habitability.

In their experiment, the scientists created a fine, dusty soil similar to the Martian surface, infused some PAHs in microscopic amounts, and scanned it with different color filters from a panoramic camera. The devices were able to identify as little as 1.5 micrograms of the organic material and pinpoint different PAHs by variations in their fluorescent response.

The trick now is to make the cameras light and tough enough to survive a trip through space and landing on the surface, not to mention survive for any length of time on Mars. Then maybe something handheld, like the old Star Trek tricorders.



The Phoenix lander, which recently arrived on the Red Planet, has already located ice, and ice is considered an ideal indicator that there could be such PAH microbes. If there was previously running water on Mars, then areas with water would be likely to hold some microbial life forms.

However, it will likely be at least five years before this bio-scanner is ready for a trip into space, according to one of the scientists on the project.

Dear Jerry Yang,

You probably don't remember me, since it's been 13 years. Let me refresh your memory.

It was the spring 1995 Internet World conference (ironically, run by my current employer) in the San Jose Convention Center. The middle of the floor was dominated by the likes of CompuServe and AOL and Netcom. Off to the fringes were the small firms, the startups, who had just a high table to stand behind and just enough room for one computer and monitor.

There you were with David Filo and two other guys, all dressed like typical college students. We talked for a few and I knew that you had finally moved off the Stanford address (akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo) to your own domain. Your comment to me, which I'll never forget, was "Dave and I are taking some time off from getting our masters degrees to see if we can make this work as a company." You'd just hired the other two guys and joked "Now there's four of us Yahoos."

If I'd known then what I know now I might have been tempted to break laws to become the fifth yahoo. I certainly wouldn't have gone back home to Boston.

It was my vacation last week, but the first thing I did on Monday morning was search for live feeds of the Apple World Wide Developer Conference. After all, I'd heard the rumors of a $199 price tag for the iPhone for weeks in advance.

While our intrepid west coast bureau chief Dave Needle was there, pictures from the keynote began to emerge before it ended. The pictures told the story. Jobs' neck was about as thick as an iPod. His face was gaunt. The infamous black turtleneck hung on him like a drape and his jeans looked bunched, a classic sign of someone wearing pants too large for him.

"Oh no..." I mumbled.

While I run Windows machines at home (I'm a life-long gamer. Mac will never be a games platform until Microsoft ports DirectX to Mac OS, but that's for another blog), my first computer ever was an Apple IIe. Steve Jobs is as much a part of my geeky teen years as Gary Gygax, Lord British, Tom Baker and Neil Peart.

(whoda thunk the rock star would be the most successful one of the bunch in 2008, Jobs aside?)