A Hungarian research team claims that Martian organisms dot certain areas of the Red Planet. Calling the intriguing blemishes “dark dune spots”, the scientists argue that these changing features are “probable Martian surface organisms.” Their evidence is based on studies of imagery snapped by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), a spacecraft now orbiting that planet. However, this is at odds with the published conclusions of the MGS team, and at least one leading Mars researcher and astrobiology expert deems the life-form assertion “premature”. This is also not the first time that images of Martian surface features from MGS have sparked the life debate.