John Grotzinger is the chief project scientist on NASA's Curiosity rover, a one-ton robot that is about four months into its two-year mission to see if the Mars was ever able to support microbial life.
Two weeks ago, Grotzinger set off rumors that the rover had possibly found signs of life when he told NPR that Curiosity had made a discovery "for the history books."
Quelling speculation in a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco today, Dec. 3, researchers announced that Curiosity detected organics in a sample of Martian soil, but it is not yet confirmed if they came from Mars or were brought from Earth by Curiosity.
Grotzinger responded to the earlier hub-bub he caused, saying, "You have to be careful about what you say and even more careful about how you say it." He added, "We're doing science at the speed of science in a world that goes at the speed of Instagrams. The enthusiasm that our team has is just misunderstood."
Sounds like Grotzinger just learned a tough lesson about the nature of the Internet.
SEE ALSO: Here's What The Mars Rover Found In Its First Analysis Of Martian Soil