I really doubt that a speculation made on some remote conference, containing the words "perhaps" could mean the end of his career if it doesn't come true. NASA

I really doubt that a speculation made on some remote conference, containing the words "perhaps" could mean the end of his career if it doesn't come true. NASA is the agency that made a big prime time press conference for their "arsenic DNA" discovery not so long ago, which proved to be BS (and not well researched at that).