[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Gil Levin has a new document on the Spherix website: Modern myths of Mars (1.3 Mb PDF).

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Levin's arguments are always compelling if obviously biased, but I believe that final resolution of the issue can only come from direct (human) analysis of actual Martian samples.

It's difficult to conceive of an automated experiment that could run the full gamut of possible tests needed to conclusively prove or disprove the presence of microbial life, especially if it's radically different in any significant particular from terrestrial microorganisms (insert a confused shrug icon here...really, who knows what might be?)....the ALH meteorite notwithstanding. General metabolic patterns like nutrient consumption rates may exhibit far more diversity than we know.

Time to confess my secret fear: What if there are indeed Martian microcritters, and what if they've evolved to exploit scarce organic resources much more efficiently than terrestrial bugs? I have this nightmare vision of something like the nanotechie's "gray goo" coming from a DTE surface sample return...would much rather have a Mars surface sample return mission designed to be recovered & analyzed by the ISS or its evolute, and thereby provide an isolation barrier for our ecosystem.

As a cautionary tale, my high-school biology teacher back in the '70s flatly stated that there was life on Mars after Mars 2 crashed, native or not. He was an early adherent of extremophiles after studying the bugs in the hot springs of western Montana, and believed that absolute sterilization was impossible; life would always find a niche in which it could survive. Perhaps this perspective would be wise to remember when importing samples from potentially habitable extraterrestrial locales.