L.I.F.E.

Alain Fournier wrote:

On Apr/29/2017 at 3:37 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote :
JF Mezei wrote:


We know what rovers were designed to find, and of those capabilities
what was and wasn't found. But we can't know about stuff the rovers were
not designed to detect.


And we don't really have to care. Meteorites from Mars have made it
here. We aren't all dead, so it's a virtual certainty that any
Martian microbes that might exist die under Earth conditions.


No it isn't. If there are some microbes travelling from Mars to Earth
they don't necessarily die under Earth conditions. What we can say
is that, if they do travel, they don't wreak havoc on Earth, for some
definition of 'wreak havoc'. It is possible that current conditions
on Earth are the outcome from havoc wreaked by Martian microbes.


Well, pretty much all God's chillens got common DNA, so it's unlikely
that anything from a separate evolutionary chain has made it here and
survived to have an impact. Regardless, if it did, then it's
obviously nothing for us to worry about anyway. And we're talking
about fears (by some) of CURRENTLY EXTANT Martian bacteria.

That stuff, given the environment on Mars for the last several billion
years, is likely to be radiation tolerant and oxygen intolerant.


--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to
live in the real world."
-- Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden