The near approach of Mars last summer was a sad disappointment to astronomers. A dust storm that veiled the planet's disk foiled the fanciest apparatus. But last week's meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at Flagstaff, Ariz, heard a few bits of Martian news that had shown through the dust curtain.
Telltale Band. Most important was proof that organic (carbon-hydrogen) compounds probably exist on Mars. Dr. William Sinton of the Smithsonian Institution started with the fact that compounds containing carbon, when joined to hydrogen, absorb infra-red radiation with a wave length...