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Intraterrestrials: Mars Life May Hide Deep Below
astroengine writes "Almost every month we see news dispatches from the Mars where the nuclear-powered rover Curiosity finds water-bearing minerals in rocks and other circumstantial clues that the Red Planet could have once supported life. But in terms of finding direct evidence of past or present Martians, the rover barely scratches the surface, says geochemist Jan Amend of the University of Southern California. Using Earth life as an example, some species of microbes live miles below the surface, without sunlight or oxygen, metabolizing chemicals that are the result of radioactive decay. Most intriguing of all is the microbe Desulforudis Audaxviator that dwells nearly two miles down, a life form that would feel right at home inside Mars' crust. 'This organism has had to figure out everything on its own,' says Amend, 'it splits water into hydrogen and oxygen for metabolism.' Amend hopes to drop probes deep underground in some of the world's most inhospitable locations over the next few years, creating a possible analog for future Mars subsurface studies."
I probably make more money and pay more taxes than two average slashdotters put together, professionals that are half a century old are generally like that....
we've caused many times more (hundreds of thousands) of Iraqi deaths than Saddam did. those people never attacked us. The villagers and goat herders of Afghanistan did not attack us either, Al Qaeda and the "Taliban" that hosted Bin Laden left there long ago and fled to Pakistan and other parts.
Now we are not "winning" in Afghanistan, and are negotiating with the Taliban groups because we are failing to "bring Democracy" (at gunpoint, which of course is doomed effort)