A suggestion that dark spots near the south pole of Mars could be a sign of life has led to a meeting of European Space Agency scientists to determine whether the theory warrants a look with ESA’s planned Mars Express, scheduled to orbit the planet beginning in late 2003. The spots appear on dunes found on the floors of craters in the south and north polar regions. A Hungarian team has examined the southern spots in detail and reported that the spots appear in late winter and then disappear by summer.