Life on Mars! Again!

Perhaps with all the budget debates in Congress, NASA now fears budget cuts more than once a year, necessitating semi-annual life-on-Mars stories. Discovery News (no relation) has the story:

Scientists have found water-bearing deposits on Mars that are out of step with what was happening elsewhere on the planet, raising the prospect that the sites could have hosted Martian life's last stand.

The deposits are a type of clay called smectites, which contain a blend of silica with aluminum, iron...