"The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology."Even though the Phoenix cannot verify the existence of life on Mars (it doesn't have the prerequisite gear) it can "spot dissolved ammonium and nitrate salts. "On Earth, if you have a lot of ammonium and nitrate it usually means there is organic activity. We excrete it as waste and other organisms use it - Dr. Jon Clarke."
Looking for crap has it's advantages, something some really smart researchers thought about when building the Phoenix.
“Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity” - Arnold Bennett
Addendum: Phoenix was a bargain basement lander built from parts of a cancelled Surveyor project.
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