In the News

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Dr. Fauci is 80.
I find that amazing .
Good for him. Real good .
And I find that encouraging.

[v8vega]

He's also the highest paid federal employee over $400,000

[gregj410]

He's also the highest paid federal employee over $400,000

Good paying job to be wrong all the time

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The USA has just landed, today, a vehicle on Mars . Part of its mission is to dig into the soil of the crater , a former lake , where it was landed and will explore, to collect samples in the hope and hypothesis that fossils or remnants of former (.or present?????) life forms might be removed and brought to Earth.

Should we be doing such collecting ? How can we be sure any life forms brought here from Mars might not be infections to life here?

Is every virus and bacteria presently on earth and a source of infection for some of us actually native to our planet? How can we be sure some viral life forms were not passengers on the many meteors that have slammed into this planet, through the millennia ? (!)

[rogruth]

Science fiction has covered almost every possible scenario and mankind either survived or was wiped out or mutated so get ready.

[chuck]

Outer space is pretty harsh, especially for life forms. It also takes a long time to get from one place to another because space is really, Really, REALlY BIG.. Right now they are putting the shortest time to transit from Earth to/from Mars to be about 6 months. The surface of Mars is a lot closer to "outer space" than the surface of the earth. There is no protective magnetic field and almost no atmosphere (in part because there is no protective magnetic field). It's been that way for a really long time. Pretty harsh radiation dose over millions of years. Virus's don't survive long out side of some host. Even bacteria in a protective spoor form would have a hard time surviving that kind of environment for that long a period of time.

The probes are looking for evidence of ancestral life forms, aka fossils. These would be like fossils on earth, IMPRESSIONS of previous organic material embedded in rock. Even the former organic material has been rendered inorganic. No DNA, RNA, or any other kind of proteins. I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Sci Fi may be littered with alien plagues but the reality is much less scary.

Even if they did find something dangerous on Mars in the next 10 years the 6 month trip back will pretty much make sure it doesn't make it to Earth. If the crew starts getting sick, they aren't coming back.

[HONDO74]

Nasa's Perseverance rover in 'great shape' after Mars landing
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56119931

Perseverance's most interesting rock finds will be packaged into small tubes to be left on the surface.

Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa) have devised a multi-billion-dollar plan to go fetch these cylinders towards the end of the decade.

It will be a complex endeavour involving a second rover, a Mars rocket and a huge satellite to ship the Jezero materials home.

Returning samples is the logical - and necessary - next step in Mars exploration.

Even if Perseverance discovers something that looks like a bio-signature, the evidence is almost certain to be contested - as claims for ancient life's traces here on Earth usually are.

Bringing rocks back for further, more sophisticated analysis is therefore likely to be the only way any arguments about past biology on the Red Planet will be settled.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Considering the Hypatia Stone might be pertinent to such a discussion ?

A piece of a comet or from something/somewhere else?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Outer space is pretty harsh..........

Hostile in fact.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Outer space is pretty harsh..........

Hostile in fact.

But we still want to know if we have company.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Outer space is pretty harsh..........

Hostile in fact.

But we still want to know if we have company.

As long as they don't see us as their next meal or as raw materials.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

My entire life , I haven't made friends or nonfriends based on whether they were going to eat me or not.

There are always plenty of adventures to experience ahead, together. Lots to discover about each other and what's out there, in and beyond the neighborhood .

[chuck]

But we still want to know if we have company.

Had would be more appropriate. This is stuff from around 4 billion years ago when the solar system itself was pretty new/young.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

My entire life , I haven't made friends or nonfriends based on whether they were going to eat me or not.

Next time you're out for a walk and are accosted by a pack of coyotes, do remember this.

3 hominids were out crossing the high grass and heard something.

1 thought it was a tiger and ran for his life, and it was a tiger and he got away and lived.
1 thought it was a tiger and ran for his life, but it was only the wind and everyone laughed at him for being so chicken$shit.
1 thought it was only the wind, and the tiger had him for dinner.

This has happened millions of times for millions of years and now everyone sees tigers where there aren't any since chicken$shits breed and survive.
During this same time others noticed and figured out how to use this to their advantage all over a fear of invisible tigers.

I'll leave the obvious conclusion to the reader.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Edifying. Indeed.