THIS is science? May have, might have, etc...
Yes that is science. Scientific theories are always qualified like this because at any time, even a theory that has been accepted for hundreds of years can be shown to be incorrect. (Ask Isaac Newton about this, for example). Furthermore, no amount of evidence can prove a scientific theory correct. Science is always speculative to some degree.
Yes, this is how science works. Theories are proposed, bandied about, gaps are filled in or not. Over time, theses are tested and either supported or abandoned.
The fact that we are seeing the early stages of the process here, with speculation and conjecture, does not diminish the method.
Why not? They find a rock in Antarctica and somehow KNOW that it came from Mars. How they know it came from Mars and not the Earth, Moon, an asteroid, or a meteorite is beyond me.
One question: where did the genetic material come from.
This couldn't be first life, it would be later life.
Genetic material implies life by definition. In organic material does not have genes.
"THIS is science? May have, might have, etc..."
Yes. That is how it works.
Observation.
Speculation.
Test the hypothesis.
etc.