Kenneth Chang

Indeed, if you look at the other comments on the tweet you’ll see peoples’ reactions are either “oh they found life” or “oh this is false”

The tweet should have had a “possibly” after molecules (or another analogous formulation)

Simple, effective, elegant solution :)

1/I wrote the article, not the tweet. (A variation on reporters disclaiming, “I don’t write the headlines.”) That’s an odd defense since the tweet is, verbatim, the first sentence of the article.

2/Context matters. Next sentence: “That does not prove that life has ever existed on Mars.” I think most everyone reading the second paragraph can figure out what I meant in the first sentence.

3/Maybe lots of people hate the article too, but as far as I know, no one has slagged me about it being wrong/misleading/bad. It’s the tweet people object to.

4/I understand what everyone is saying. I wouldn’t have sent out that tweet. I know this, because this is what I personally tweeted about my story:https://twitter.com/kchangnyt/status/1004807028945104896 …

5/The tweet needed more context, e.g. “Scientists for the first time have confidently identified on Mars a collection of carbon molecules that are, at least on Earth, used and produced by living organisms.”