1.   The astronauts talk about looking for fossil microbes, but their main adventure is a tedious flatulence gag.

2.   But the discovery of possible fossil microbes in a Martian meteorite has raised the possibility that primitive life emerged there about the same time it did on Earth.

3.   Farmer knows from experience how hard it is to find fossil microbes on Earth.

4.   Even the discovery of fossil microbes or the biochemical forerunners of life would be an extraordinarily precious find, scientists say.

5.   Last year, however, a scientific team reported finding possible fossil microbes in a meteorite from Mars.

6.   McKay leads the team of scientists who, last August, reported the discovery of possible fossil microbes in the Mars rock.

7.   The hints of fossil microbes found in martian meteorites suggest that about the time primitive life began on Earth, it may have appeared on Mars too.