The easiest way to guarantee a headline on CNN is to say you’ve found life on Mars. Or, to be more specific, that NASA once found it but didn’t really know it.

At the meeting here today, Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University described his theory that the Viking landers may have detected signs of microbial Martian life in 1976. The key: hydrogen peroxide, which in addition to bleaching your hair may have formed the basis for alien life forms, he argues.

The problem is that no one has ever been able to agree on what the Viking landers found. One of the key scientists for one of the key instruments has long insisted that it found evidence of life. Few others believe him. So Schultze-Makuch can speculate all day long about life forms based on hydrogen peroxide — but until someone demonstrates that these kinds of critters really can exist, it’ll be awfully tough to prove.

You can read more about the Viking experiments here.