99% Invisible A Man, a Plan, a Canal—Mars!
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Mar 10, 2026 
David Barron, science journalist and author of The Martians, gives a brisk tour of the late-19th/early-20th-century Martian craze and Percival Lowell’s role. He traces the origin of the famous canals, telescope limits and optical illusions. The story covers public spectacle, media hype, recantations by scientists, and parallels to modern misinformation.
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Canali Became Canals Through Mistranslation
- 19th-century Mars maps showed straight lines labelled canali by Schiaparelli and mistranslated as canals, implying artificial construction.
- The mistranslation turned a neutral observation of channels into a narrative that those lines were engineered irrigation works across Mars.
Lowell's Coherent Dying Planet Theory
- Lowell built a coherent theory that Mars was older and dying, so its intelligent inhabitants built a planet-wide irrigation canal system to transport polar meltwater.
- That theory fit contemporary ideas about polar caps and planetary aging, making it plausible to many credible scientists.
Author's Visit To Lowell's Telescope
- David Barron visited Lowell's Flagstaff Observatory in 2018 and looked through Percival Lowell's original telescope at Mars during a close approach.
- Staring at the apricot-colored orb was hypnotic and made it hard to separate actual surface detail from imagination in fleeting moments of clarity.
