VPL Researcher, David Catling (University of Washington), was recently interviewed in a Nature News article discussing NASA’s Perseverance Rover and why analogous locations on Earth suggest that It’s choice of landing spot, Jezero Crater, is one of the best locations to search for signs of life on Mars!
In the Article, David discusses some of his recent research into the origins of life on Earth and how shallow surface lakes, and their seasonal wet-dry cycles, may have provided the right conditions and for the prebiotic chemical interactions that set the stage for the first cells to form.