5333 private links
A Cornell University geneticist posits that life discovered on the red planet might have actually originated on earth in NASA labs, despite thorough on-site cleaning procedures and spacecraft assembly in specialized rooms. //
Amid the latest exploration and search for life on Mars, a Cornell scientist wonders what humans could have accidentally “carried into space and survived the trip to make its new home on Mars”
"Microbes have been on Earth for billions of years, and they are everywhere," Mason wrote.
“They are inside us, on our bodies, and all around us. Some can sneak through even the cleanest of clean rooms.” //
"It turns out that clean rooms might serve as an evolutionary selection process for the hardiest bugs that then may have a greater chance of surviving a journey to Mars," Mason wrote.
Researchers' findings, according to Mason, might cause what is called "forward contamination." Forward contamination is where travelers take something intentionally or unintentionally from one planet to another. Mason adds that new organisms "can wreak havoc" on a new ecosystem.