JBPCOL

Hi, I would really like to hear from anyone with a more indepth knowledge of the search for life on Mars than myself. I am a professional marine biologist with a keen interest in microbiology. I have been extremely puzzled for some time now about the supposed search for life beyond our own planet. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe is a highly regarded astrobiologist with over 75 publications in Nature alone highlighting his credentials. I have read several of his papers in which he 1- has identified microorganisms in the stratosphere which have to originate from space...the boundary between the troposphere/stratosphere inhibits terrestrial sourced microorganisms achieving these heights and 2- the spectral signature of "space dust" is exactly the same as known bacterial examples on Earth. Therefore why are we all being led to believe in the popular press that life has not been found anywhere beyond our own planet? any comments would be greatly received