I think that if something like this comes from a NASA director, it is not made up or speculative. A speculation like that not being true would mean the end of his career.
It's not a NASA director, it's the head of JPL. And it was abundantly clear from his comment of "perhaps Curiosity has found simple organic molecules" that he does not actually have any firm knowledge of what Curiosity has or has not found and is merely speculating along just like every other armchair scientist has been. And because that is abundantly clear to everyone with a gram of common sense, notably excluding those who want to hype this speculation into something it's not, whether or not it's actually an accurate prediction has about as much impact on his career at JPL as him speculating about whether or not it will rain in Pasadena tomorrow.
I'm not sure why you're focusing on Charles Elachi or his job title (properly, "Director of JPL") here.
Charles Elachi (http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/elachi_biography.html) is an eminent scientist in his own right (follow the link to see) and you can bet he's very well-informed about MSL, which is JPL's biggest mission right now. This is because Charles has been running JPL ever since MSL was in the planning stage. His job would include briefing all interested parties about the progress of the mission and its instruments for about 8 years now.
In no sense is Charles Elachi "just like every other armchair scientist".
Besides this side show (I work at JPL so it's bothersome to read mischaracterizations of Charles), I agree with you that this story has been shifted beyond what it actually means. If I read you right, that's what caused you to comment. "Organic" has been changed from its chemistry meaning ("containing carbon") to its lay meaning ("coming from something living"). And "perhaps" has been left out completely.
Charles is a careful speaker and a veteran at communicating results to the public. This is why his statement contains a specific disclaimer ("not biological"). You have to give the article credit for getting this right.
The question is whether or not he's speaking from having some insight into Curiosity's findings or if he's merely engaging in speculation, which I think is ambiguous given his statements so far. Until he's made a more clear-cut statement I don't think it's helpful to read too deeply into what he's said and assume that he has some special knowledge of the mission findings.
And he said, in fact, that that was what they found, but that it's still a "perhaps" because they have to check the data very very thoroughly. Read the news, and get your informations right.
Please stop trolling all over the thread, thanks :)
The wikipedia article supports InclinedPlane. And the title of your submission doesn't include "Perhaps", so it is quite misleading. I think maybe you need to check your information first.
?? I say he is a Director, InclinedPlane says he is only the "Head". The wikipedia article states without doubt that he is a Director. How is that supporting InclinedPlane? Pfff....
I really doubt that a speculation made on some remote conference, containing the words "perhaps" could mean the end of his career if it doesn't come true.
NASA is the agency that made a big prime time press conference for their "arsenic DNA" discovery not so long ago, which proved to be BS (and not well researched at that).
