Gilbert Victor Levin (April 23, 1924 – July 26, 2021) was an American
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
, the founder of
Biospherics and the
principal investigator of the
''Viking'' mission Labeled Release experiment.
He was born in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...
.
In 1997, Levin published his conclusion that a 1976 Viking lander had discovered living microorganisms on Mars.
He is noted for still claiming that his experiment on board the
1976 Viking Mars landers to detect microscopic
life on Mars
The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that ...
rendered a true positive result. On April 12, 2012, an international team including Levin reported their analysis "support the interpretation that the Viking LR experiment did detect extant microbial life on Mars." The team used
cluster analysis
Cluster analysis or clustering is the data analyzing technique in which task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more Similarity measure, similar (in some specific sense defined by the ...
of the Labeled Release experiments of the
Viking program
The ''Viking'' program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, ''Viking 1'' and ''Viking 2'' both launched in 1975, and landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed by the NASA Langley Research Cent ...
.
He was one of the science advisers of the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return.
[Richard Stenge]
Mars sample return plan carries microbial risk, group warns
CNN, November 7, 2000
He also patented an inexpensive method to make
tagatose, an artificial sweetener, in 1988.
[.]
Levin died in
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...
after an
aortic dissection
Aortic dissection (AD) occurs when an injury to the innermost layer of the aorta allows blood to flow between the layers of the aortic wall, forcing the layers apart. In most cases, this is associated with a sudden onset of agonizing ches ...
on July 26, 2021, at the age of 97.
Publications
''Can Chirality Give Proof of Extinct or Extant Life?''
See also
*
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...
References
External links
GilbertLevin.Com*Gilbert Levin's publications on Mars research: https://asu.academia.edu/GilVLevin
Gilbert Levin Interview
The Space Show, broadcast no. 2203, 2014.
*
* ttps://www.coleparmer.com/tech-article/gilbert-v-levin-phd-d-tagatose Gilbert V. Levin, Ph.D.br>Gilbert V. LevinDR. GILBERT V. LEVINGilbert V. Levin
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1924 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American engineers
21st-century American engineers
Engineers from Baltimore