Book Log 2007 #60: The Rock from Mars by Kathy Sawyer

Rather than delve into any of that more detailed early history of the space race that I talked about, I opted to go for this book about the Mars rock that, about 10 years ago, was reported to show evidence of past life on the red planet. The explanation of how the rock was discovered and how the team of scientists determined that it contained evidence of life is pretty interesting.

What's not so interesting is the coverage of the ensuing scientific infighting and the bureaucratic wrangling involving NASA. Both are important parts of the story, but both are hard to make interesting. The book is notably drier as it goes along.

On a personal note, it was interesting to read about Dan Goldin, the NASA administrator at the time who would later be BU's president for about a month. He sounds like a very capable person to run an organization, but maybe not in education.

In any case, as this appears to be the only book about the rock out there, if you're interested in the topic you're pretty much going to have to read this. Which is OK, but don't expect too much.