Now we know that, if there were life on Mars, it would be exclusively microbial. The time of the “martian fever”, which was encouraged by H. G. Welles, and later by Orson Welles, has passed. Nor should we forget the delirious history of the martian canals. It should be remembered, however, that in the 1930s science was already quite clear about this theme. Issue 15 of Science News, 1934, states emphatically:
Astronomers now feel sure that if life exists on our neighbor planets such as Mars, it is of the humblest kind.