Evidence of life on Mars lurks beneath surface of meteorite, Nasa experts claim - Times Online: "Nasa scientists have produced the most compelling evidence yet that bacterial life exists on Mars.

It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 years ago are almost certainly fossilised bacteria. The so-called bio-morphs are embedded beneath the surface layers of the rock, suggesting that they were already present when the meteorite arrived, rather than being the result of subsequent contamination by Earthly bacteria."

Nova by the fire:

Whoo. I got schooled by a dude in a Mazda3. And not a Speed3 either. Sheesh.

I did the Trackmasters charity event at Infineon last Saturday in the Exige and quite unexpectedly had my best on-track battle to date. Low 50's in the morning and sunny, but a very cold and slightly damp track for the first couple of sessions. I ran in the Advanced run group, which with Trackmasters is open passing with optional point by. We got Doug's usual "no passing in tight spots" speech in the driver's meeting but then they pretty much just let us run. We spent the whole day passing (with and without the optional point-bys) through 7, 11 and other turns. It was the usual fast, courteous Trackmasters A group, but a lot more open.

There was a grey, stock-looking Mazda3 in A with me and I passed him very easily in the first session and stayed ahead, so I "knew" that I was faster than he was. In the second session, I wound up starting right behind him, which gave me time to notice that the car was wearing an instructor X. Once we got out of traffic, I set about going around him and discovered that I needed to work a lot harder to catch him. I took me a lap and a half to setup the pass but when he took the wide, "school" line through 11, I outbraked him and passed on the inside line. Expecting to leave him again I went back to my line, only to have him try to pass on the inside through 1. At that point, it was on. He made one more attempt to pass on the next lap and then he settled in and waited for me to make a mistake. I held him off for most of the session and then got caught up in traffic heading into 6. I took the slow car through 6 on the inside, but I didn't take it all the way to the left and the 3 was able to get door to door with me on the inside. I cooked the turn, had the back swing out on me and he was around as I corrected. Then he proceeded to show me the difference between a qualifying line and a racing line as he ran the inside lines through 7 and 11 for the final two laps, taking away my brakes, the only clear advantage that I had.

I consider it a victory that I made a better driver make an adjustment to stay ahead of me. ;)

I tracked him down after the session, expecting to find a set of sticky tires on the car but no, he was just putting his slicks on when I finally found his parking spot! I managed not to boggle openly and kept a poker face when he complained about the "shot Potenzas" that he'd been running. I said something completely true and equally lame about too much air in my tires. We shook hands, complimented each other's driving, etc and agreed that was about the most fun we'd had in a long time. He found me later in the day and asked about my lap times since he'd just turned in a 1:55 on the sticky tires. He was stunned when I told him that my fastest timed lap at Infineon (at a previous event) was only 2:00.20.

I was a lot faster in the afternoon sessions but I never saw him on the track again.

I could stare at it all day...