Could Curiosity Determine if Viking Found Life on Mars?

One of the most controversial and long-debated aspects of Mars exploration has been the results of the Viking landers’ life-detection experiments back in the 1970s. While the preliminary findings were consistent with the presence of bacteria (or something similar) in the soil samples, the lack of organics found by other instruments forced most scientists to conclude that the life-like responses were most likely the result of unknown chemical reactions, not life. Gilbert V. Levin, however, one of the primary scientists involved with the Viking experiments, has continued to maintain that the Viking landers did indeed find life in the Martian soil. Curiosity is not specifically a life-detection mission. Rather, it continues the search for evidence of habitability, both now and in the past.  Levin believes it could find knew life, between its organics detection capability and its high-resolution cameras.