On the ability of the Viking gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to detect organic matter.

A recent paper by Navarro-Gonzalez et al. [Navarro-Gonzalez R, Navarro KF, de la Rosa J, Iniguez E, Molina P, Miranda LD, Morales P, Cienfuegos E, Coll P, Raulin F, et al. (2006) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:16089-16094] claims to show that the Viking GCMS (gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer) experiment, which carried out a search for organic matter at the surface of Mars in 1976, "may have been blind to low levels of organics." To rebut this assertion, the Viking experiment, test data, and results on Mars are reviewed, and the fallacies in the design, execution, and interpretation of the new experiments presented by Navarro-Gonzalez et al. are critically examined.