"The Italian word “canali” was translated as “canals”, helping to fuel a much larger fantasy about Martian engineers and extraterrestrial civilisation."
Wade Roush reconstructs the history of speculation about life on Mars, including Giovanni Schiaparelli's observations and Percival Lowell's advocacy of artificial Martian canals. The episode illustrates how scientific observations can acquire increasingly elaborate meanings as they travel through translation, interpretation and popular culture.
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