[mcfig]

People are reacting negatively to your comment, the reason is that however accurate your complaint may be about most such reporting (IMO you are correct), you have chosen to attach it to this article. I find no evidence in this article of “tone implying life is about to turn up”.

I think you have misread the tone. The article certainly has a tone of excitement throughout. But it’s excitement for further knowledge, in general.

Of the possibility of life showing up elsewhere, it says only this: “Scientists are still a long way from answering whether life could originate on Enceladus”

[superposeur]

Fair enough. On the other hand, to my ear the title "NASA finds life-sparking energy source and molecule" sets the tone, as though life was sparked, or that we even know could be sparked by the presence of these ingredients with some degree of confidence.

[mcfig]

Good point, I had glossed over the title. That is definitely clickbait, “life-sparking” is not the same as “potential life precursor”. The rest of the article seems unusually restrained, though.

[borissk]

Life is much more than a mix of ingredients. A dead bacteria cell has all the ingredients needed for life, but is not alive.