Levin, Gilbert (1925–)
One-time sanitation engineer in California who developed a technique to
detect bacterial contaminants in water and went on to play a significant
role in the Viking project as designer and
team leader of the Viking labeled release (LR)
experiment. In his detection method, the sample to be tested was mixed
with a nutrient containing traces of radioactive carbon-14. Any bacteria
present in the sample would feed on the nutrient and, as a waste product
of their metabolism, give off radioactive
carbon dioxide which could be detected
with a radiation counter. Commercial interest in the technique proved disappointing,
but then, at a cocktail party in 1959, Levin met T. Keith Glennan, NASA's
first administrator. A discussion ensued about approaches to life-detection
by space probes which led, in 1961, to Levin being awarded a contract to
develop an instrument to search for life on Mars.
Known as "Gulliver", and eventually, more formally, as the "labeled release
experiment", this was to provide the most intriguing data of the three experiments
making up Viking's integrated biology package. Yet, while the scientific
consensus, in the wake of Viking, was that the remarkable activity found
in the martian soil was of a purely chemical nature, Levin stood firm in
his conviction that the data suggested a biological interpretation (see
Levin's hypothesis, about the active nature of
the martian soil). So strong were the disagreements between the different
camps involved in the biology experiments on Viking, that the dispute became
acrimonious and was the subject of two consecutive issues of the New
Yorker in 1979. To this day, Levin vociferously maintains that Viking
found life on Mars.
Related category
• ASTROBIOLOGY
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