OK, here's another fun train of thought. Now I don't want to be branded a nut, but I am intrigued by the spherical things that are all over parts of the Opportunity landing site. While NASA says there are any number of natural processes that can explain them, I'm having trouble imagining what those are -- other than hailstorms. These things appear to be on more compact soil, not loose finer dust, and usually not on rocks. They do not seem randomly distributed. Sometimes they're in rows evenly spaced, and they usually aren't in a big heap, the way you'd expect to find mineral balls -- you would expect them to roll into a cavity and pile up there. I found iron nodules in southern Utah that were not evenly distributed. In fact, these seem to be more on the crests than the little depressions in the soil. What really got my interest going is that I looked at a pair of views of a soil close-up, studying them in 3D. These objects do not look round. Instead, they seem somewhat elongated. The smaller objects seem more elongated than the big ones. Also, they have seems and the seems run toward the ground. So here's my thought, which I would like people to take pot shots at or tell me what you think. What if they are some Martian analog to growing plants or fungus? What if they poke out of the soil in a sort of elongated stem and then puff out into more of a ball shape as they grow? It's possible that the seems of elongation is just a distortion caused by some fault in the perspective of the 3D images, but I can't tell that. I have put together a 3D version, cropping parts that were in too much sunlight and making both of the views cover approximately the same territory. I also brightened everything. Anyone who would like to see this, please drop me a note and I can email the image to you individually. Chuck, I know you can view items in 3D by free-base looking. Would you take a look at this and tell me what you think? Everybody, is it even possible that these are some kind of growing life form? Am I goofy for even suspecting that? Thanks all -- Joe