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NASA May Have Inadvertently Killed Life on Mars, Scientist Says
from science alert ...
[....] decades ago in the 1970s, when the Viking landers became the first US mission to safely land on and explore the red planet, we may have been close.
One researcher raises the possibility that life existed in a sample of Martian soil. And then, in our quest to sniff it, we snuffed it out. Just like that.
[....] an experiment to detect the signs of microbial life on Mars could have been deadly.
[....] it's essential for us to consider thoroughly the ecology of Mars when designing future experiments.
[....] One of those experiments, the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GCMS), found chlorinated organics. At the time, that result was interpreted as contamination from human cleaning products, and thus a null detection for signs of biology.
We know now that chlorinated organics are native to Mars, although whether they are produced by biological or non-biological processes remains unknown.
There has been some speculation in recent years about the destructiveness of the Viking biological experiments. The GCMS needed to heat the samples to separate out the various materials therein. That, subsequent analysis revealed, could have incinerated the very organics it was hoping to find.
[....] what would happen if you poured water over these dry-adapted microbes. Might that overwhelm them? In technical terms, we would say that we were hyperhydrating them, but in simple terms, it would be more like drowning them," Schulze-Makuch explained in his column.
"It would be as if an alien spaceship were to find you wandering half-dead in the desert, and your would-be saviors decide, 'Humans need water. Let's put the human in the middle of the ocean to save it!'
Kidney stones weigh less on Mars.
[Editor's Comment:: Title changed to more accurately reflect summary content--JR ]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday November 20, @08:44PM (8 children)
No, it doesn't mean that at all.
We have to reduce the full story into a summary. The [...] indicate that there is text that has not be copied into the summary. It doesn't mean that it is irrelevant, it simply means that we are trying to get the salient points across so that you can decide if you want to read the full story. Of course, if you are going to comment on it then perhaps you should read the full source before doing so. The point or points that you raise may well have already been raised in the original article.
Alternatively, you can post as AC so that nobody can tell it was you making a redundant post.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, @09:04PM (3 children)
I am a different AC, but the Kidney stones non-sequitur kind of threw me too.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 20, @09:48PM (2 children)
I couldn't think of anything better to write on that line. Honestly, I was just drawing a blank, which I usually don't do.
Some people need assistants to hire some assistance.
Other people need assistance to hire some assistants.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, @10:29PM (1 child)
Well...you did at least inspire a strange contemplation.
Assuming a large, enclosed dome on Mars, I wonder how far away from the urinals men could stand.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday November 21, @02:37PM
Considering the splash, them gotta be huge urinals or they'll just do it like they do on the International Space Station.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday November 20, @09:11PM (1 child)
I appreciate the kidney stone comment. The comment meant equally as much to me as someones 1970's experiment possibly gone wrong.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 20, @10:10PM
The experiment going wrong is bad. It would give us bad data. Mislead scientists. This could lead to lines of speculation that might have been precluded based on valid data from a correct experimental result.
Hopefully they will develop experiments that don't kill the life they are attempting to detect.
Some people need assistants to hire some assistance.
Other people need assistance to hire some assistants.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday November 20, @09:17PM
TLDR
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 20, @10:02PM
I would expand upon that. It is important to only include a "fair use" amount of text in order to not create a copyright infringement.
Using [...] is full disclosure to the reader that some text within a sentence has been omitted.
Using [....] is full disclosure that text crossing sentence boundaries, possibly even paragraphs have been omitted.
Some people need assistants to hire some assistance.
Other people need assistance to hire some assistants.