As NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft begins exploring the planet, particularly looking for signs of water that once could have nourished life, a University of Dayton geologist is disproving what some pointed to as scientific evidence of past life on the Red Planet. A couple of years ago, the scientific community was rocked by evidence that pointed to possible life on Mars. A 4.5-billion-year-old Martian meteorite showed what seemed to be “a trace of biochemistry, chemical compounds from little critters decaying. Not fossils, but decomposed remnants of life,” said Andrea Koziol, associate professor of geology at the University of Dayton. In experiments in her Wohlleben Hall basement laboratory, Koziol has proved the “remnants” could have been created by natural Martian processes — lessening the credibility of the theory that Mars once hosted life.