Science, Technology and Society 361: "Mars Exploration" -- Fall 2010

Friday, April 6, 2007

'Conan the bacterium'

A team of Russian and American researchers claim that certain bacteria present on Earth that exhibit extremely high resistance to radiation levels that kill other organisms could have evolved from Mars. They theorize that meteorites blown off the surface of Mars that travel to Earth could have carried some life forms since their radiation-resisting trait has no value on Earth, and there has been no evolutionary pressure to develop such a resistance.

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