For centuries, humans have struggled to answer the question, “Are we alone in the universe?” The discovery of methane gas in the Martian atmosphere this past March by the Mars Express orbiter may bring scientists one step closer to being able to answer that question. This discovery has set off a wave of excitement in scientific circles around the world, but nowhere more so than in the laboratory of Univeristy of Arkansas biology professor Timothy Kral. For years, Kral and his team of researchers at the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences have been exploring the possibility that the Red Planet could sustain life.