QUESTION: 
The Mars meteorite was found in 1984, yet the possibility of life
on it was not discovered until recently.  Were there reasons other 
than technology that the discovery of the possibility of life on 
this meteorite took so long?

ANSWER from Bruce Jakosky on June 18, 1997:
It wasn't technology that delayed the martian origin of ALH84001 from the
time of its discvoery until just a few years ago.  Rather, it was natural
limits on human understanding.  In 1984 ,when the rock was found,
the idea of meteorites from Mars had not yet become generally accepted.
As a result, this rock was put into the closest appropriate class of
meteorites--the diogenites.  A few years ago, one scientist was studying
diogenite meteorites and looked at this one.  He immediately realized
that it did not belong in that group and, upon doing some fairly
straightforward analysis, discovered that it fit best with the other
martian meteorites.  Additional analysis has confirmed a martian
origin for it--at least we believe to a high degree of confidence that
it is from Mars.