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Meet the Neighbors
  • Published: 23 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837312597
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416
Categories:

Meet the Neighbors

Life on Mars and How to Find It

Formats & editions
Hardback
3 Nov 2026
EBook
23 July 2026
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A pioneering astrobiochemist argues that the 1976 Viking landers may already have found life on Mars – and shows how we can prove it

Are we alone in the universe? Mars has always seemed where we were likeliest to find the answer. Yet, since the Viking landers touched down in 1976, no mission has returned to the Martian surface to search directly for life living there now. Instead we’re searching the moons of outer planets, or the atmospheres of planets many light years away.

In Meet the Neighbors, pioneering astrobiochemist Steven A. Benner argues that this was a historic mistake. That we’re looking in the wrong place. Drawing on the Viking archive and explaining how the scientific process failed, he re-examines the mission that first searched for extant Martian life and makes the provocative case that its results were misunderstood. In the decades that have followed, Mars science has focused on water, geology and past habitability, while the most direct question – is anything alive on Mars today? – has been pushed aside.

Benner shows why Mars remains the most accessible place to discover a second origin of life, and why finding even microbial organisms there would transform our understanding of our place in the cosmos. He also asks a deeper question: what counts as life in the first place? From the chemistry that may give rise to living systems to \"agnostic\" tools capable of detecting unfamiliar biology, he lays out a bold and practical blueprint for the next phase of exploration.

At once a scientific detective story, a challenge to decades of orthodoxy, and a lucid guide to one of humanity’s biggest questions, Meet the Neighbors is the definitive, urgent brief on where to go, what to measure, and why the next discovery won’t just change textbooks – it will rewrite our place in the universe.
  • Published: 23 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837312597
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416
Categories:

About the author

Steven Benner

Steven A. Benner is a chemist, synthetic biologist, paleogenetist, and astrobiologist whose work began at Harvard University and developed at the ETH Zurich and the University of Florida before success in inventing medical and biotechnology products allowed him to found The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution. Throughout, he has helped reshape the modern definition of life and the search for it beyond Earth. In 2023 he was awarded the Harold Urey Medal from the International Astrobiology Society for the study of the origin of life.
SB

Praise for Meet the Neighbors

[Benner] clearly explains the science and history, but most of all the machinations and philosophy of how science works ... extremely enlightening

Kate Gardner, Physics World

a bold claim well supported by this absorbing, convincing book ... a captivating tale of misunderstood planetary biochemistry and its impact

Paul Marks, New Scientist

Benner pulls no punches in drawing powerful conclusions based on both his own research and an encyclopedic knowledge of the work of the astrobiology community

National Review

Benner’s advocacy is needed, because for half a century the consensus among what he terms ‘the community’ has been that the planet shows no signs of life

David Honigmann, Spectator

Bravo to Benner, one of the world’s most accomplished chemists, for putting the possibility of extant Martian life back on the scientific agenda

Paul Davies, author of Quantum 2.0

Did Viking 1 find life on Mars 50 years ago? Here’s why the debate continues

Leonard David, Space

Has NASA already found life on Mars?

Scientific American

I firmly believe that Benner is the scientist to take the extant life issue on Mars to the next level

Barry Digregorio, author of Mars: the Living Planet

If Benner is right - and there is extant life on Mars - the consequences could be colossal

Michael Segalov, Guardian

In his terrific new book, Benner draws powerful conclusions … He assembles an impressive body of evidence to support his bold claim that there is almost certainly life on Mars and that, furthermore, life originated on the Red Planet before it appeared on Earth, and in all probability was the source of life here

Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society

one of the book’s strengths is its accessibility, with an easy-to-follow and engaging narrative. The discussions on the possible nature of Martian life are particularly fascinating ... Benner has convinced me that Mars remains a planet of interest. At a time when new Mars missions are taking shape, this book is sure to reignite fascination with the possibility of life on the Red Planet

Penelope Wozniakiewicz, BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Robust, detailed and unapologetically argumentative

Stuart Clark, Astronomy Now

The most engaging popular science book I've read this year

Brian Clegg, Popular Science