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On the trail of ancient Martians

On the trail of ancient Martians

Last updated on: April 27, 2026 at 1:50 pm by Dan Peterson

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On the trail of ancient Martians 2026-04-27T13:50:09-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A daguerreotype of the original Nauvoo Illinois Temple as it appeared in 1847, after most of the Latter-day Saints had abandoned the city and approximately a year prior to its destruction.. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’m pleased to say that “Becoming Brigham, Episode 14 — The Prophet’s Shadow” is now up and available for viewing at no charge. And, of course, for sharing with others.

How did Brigham Young come to accept radical doctrines like the three degrees of glory and plural marriage when they initially shocked him? Why was Brigham Young willing to follow Joseph Smith even when he didn’t fully understand or even like what Joseph was teaching? What would the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints look like today without Brigham Young’s absolute loyalty to the Prophet Joseph Smith?

John Wilson continues his conversation with historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat. They explore Brigham Young’s deep, unwavering loyalty to Joseph Smith and how it shaped his life and leadership. The discussion highlights how Brigham wrestled with some of Joseph’s most radical doctrines, such as the three degrees of glory, baptism for the dead, and plural marriage. Even when these teachings conflicted with his previous beliefs, Brigham ultimately chose to accept them because they came through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Louis Pasteur in his Paris laboratory, ca. 1885 (by Albert Edelfelt)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image

This is shameful. It’s embarrassing and it’s unnecessary. My adopted home state isn’t exactly doing itself proud in this regard:

Gephardt Daily: “Utah measles cases hit 607 since outbreak, up 48 cases since April 5”
Deseret News: “Opinion: Another disease makes a comeback: Diseases that once were conquered are returning as parents avoid vaccines”
Salt Lake Tribune: “Will the LDS Church encourage its members to get the measles vaccine? We asked. Here’s the response. The faith’s top leaders went all-in during the battle against COVID-19. “The church should say something,” says a commenter, “even if some people might not like it.””

Sadly, what might justly be termed “science denial” isn’t confined to just one ideological faction. We shall see how this new development plays out, or if data-driven analysis even has any effect at all:

The White House, as seen from the Washington Monument (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Deseret News: “Trump support drops in Utah, driven by religious voters: New polling shows President Trump’s approval ratings sink in the Beehive State. Here’s why”

Newsweek: “Trump Approval Rating Flips With Religious Voters in Republican Stronghold”

Some of you may have been able to discern that I’m not exactly a wildly enthusiastic supporter of President Donald J. Trump. However, I really like this brief but eloquent Facebook response to the violent attack that occurred on Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It comes from Jábra Ghnéim, a Palestinian-American Latter-day Saint with roots in Bethlehem who grew up in Kuwait. With his kind permission, I share what he had to say:

A free republic gives you ballots, courts, speech, and time. The assassin rejects all of it. He replaces process with a private verdict and a weapon. That is not protest. It is a claim to rule. It denies the equality of fellow citizens and the legitimacy of law. Years of activism without limits and contempt dressed up as courage have trained people to see politics as war. Some will act on it. The cost is not only blood. It is a harder country, tighter speech, and a politics shaped by threat instead of consent. In a system built for argument, the bullet is not dissent. It is betrayal.

A Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planet Mars
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

This, published fairly recently in Nature Communications, is intriguing: “Diverse organic molecules on Mars revealed by the first SAM TMAH experiment.” Here is the “Abstract” of the article:

The search for organic matter on Mars has rapidly evolved in the past decade with simple aromatic, S-heterocycles, and aliphatic organic molecules detected in Gale crater. We report the in situ detection of >20 organic molecules from clay-bearing sandstones in the ~3.5-billion-year-old Knockfarrill Hill member of Glen Torridon, Gale crater, by the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite onboard the Curiosity rover. These molecules were liberated by the onboard tetramethylammonium hydroxide wet chemistry experiment. Diverse thermochemolysis products, including benzothiophene, methyl benzoate, and single and dicyclic aromatic molecules were released and detected by evolved gas analysis and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results indicate the experiment successfully released molecules preserved in ancient macromolecular or free organic matter within Martian bedrock despite ~3.5 billion years of diagenesis and radiation exposure.

And here is the first paragraph of the article’s “Introduction”:

The ongoing characterization of organic matter on Mars is a pillar of modern robotic exploration, as space agencies send rovers and landers to explore Mars’ past and present habitability and to search for signs of life1. Within 10 years, we have advanced from the search for organic molecules to identifying indigenous Martian organics. We are now poised to address the source of these organics, whether exogenous (e.g., meteoritic, cometary, or interplanetary dust particles) or endogenous (e.g., abiotically or biologically produced).

Science may be hot on the trail of ancient Martian warlords. Or maybe not. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Just to be clear about what this discovery entails or implies and what it does not: Organic molecules are chemical compounds that are primarily composed of carbon atoms, typically bonded to hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements such as sulfur and phosphorus. They are defined by their ability to form stable covalent bonds, allowing for complex structures like chains or rings, and they form the structural basis of all living organisms.

Are we at risk? Maybe not. Fair use of the movie poster.

While they’re crucial for life, forming four major types of macromolecules (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids), organic molecules aren’t actually definitive signs of life itself, but rather indicators of the building blocks of life. They can form through biological processes, yes, but they can also form non-biologically (e.g., via geological or meteorological processes). While their presence can suggest that an environment (e.g., that of Mars) was once habitable, they do not prove that life has ever actually existed in that environment. For Mars, that remains to be seen.

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