Stop press! Cows flew past the moon.

Did cows land on Mars? I know this is a silly note, but is the fact that a certain amount of methane is sustained within the Martian atomosphere an amazing thing? They'll probably find that bacteria from one of the old Russian mars probes have colonised the place!

Seriously though... if there is methane produced somehow, doesn't that mean that there is oxygen and carbon being released from something? That's either caused by:

1. Volcanic activity (none found)
2. Some active form of life (is it too hard to find the source - if there's enough to be detected in the Martian atmosphere - a very big volume - then there must be a lot being released from somewhere.)
3. Some other, hitherto, unknown process...
4. Beagle done a poop and it's decaying.