The ability of a device to detect "life" depends on the assumptions about what types of life one expects to find and what level of certainty is required.
Curiosity could certainly detect certain kinds of life... but not the types of life astrobiologists are guessing might exist near the surface. Curiosity definitely can detect active chemical processes for which there would be few if any non-biological explanations... but after so many false positives in the past the science community has decided that alone would not be definitive proof.
Curiosity was not built to detect life, but it can. However scientific conservatism would likely mean any “yes” result would be interpreted as a ”maybe.”
Curiosity could certainly detect certain kinds of life... but not the types of life astrobiologists are guessing might exist near the surface. Curiosity definitely can detect active chemical processes for which there would be few if any non-biological explanations... but after so many false positives in the past the science community has decided that alone would not be definitive proof.
Curiosity was not built to detect life, but it can. However scientific conservatism would likely mean any “yes” result would be interpreted as a ”maybe.”