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We All May Have a Little Martian In Us

Posted by samzenpus on from the back-in-the-day dept.

coondoggie writes "Men are supposed to be from Mars as John Gray's iconic relationship book would have you think, but new research presented this week suggests that in reality; we all may hail from the Red Planet. 'The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock. It's lucky that we ended up here nevertheless, as certainly Earth has been the better of the two planets for sustaining life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained on Mars, there might not have been a story to tell,' Professor Steven Benner of The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology said."

7 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. slow news day by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So it's a slow news day wherever this was written. It seems they pull this recycled article out of the garbage somewhere every couple months. Yes, we "might" be from Mars. That isn't news. I think I saw a special on it on TV in 1998.

    1. Re:slow news day by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, let us never speak of this again, regardless of whatever new evidence is found! Evar!

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:slow news day by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Um, it does say "new research" in the first sentence of both TFS and TFA. True, we have not yet set foot on Mars. But are suggesting this means there is NO EVIDENCE from Mars? Besides which, if a rock matches the chemical composition from our nearest neighbor, it kind of narrows things down. Maybe these scientists know a thing or two about what they're doing.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    3. Re:slow news day by icebike · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Chemical composition?

      Really? We have that mapped out for the entire planet do we?
      How many other rocky bodies have a similar composition mapped out?

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    4. Re:slow news day by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People have made credible arguments for survival of micro organisms in large chunks of rock. The rock acts as an ablative shield - pieces burn off and protect the rest of the rock by transferring heat. Episodes such as the Late Heavy Bombardment could have dumped enormous chunks of planetary remains on other planets. An organism safely ensconced in meters of rock might well survive the trip.

      The molybendum part I'm a bit concerned about. Sounds like a huge leap but I'm unable to come up with a copy of the lecture so all we have is this near useless summary. Remember, this guy is one of the founders of synthetic biology and has been mentioned as a candidate for a Nobel Prize. That doesn't mean he's right by any means, but he's liable to have put a bit more thought into this than the hive mind here.

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    5. Re: slow news day by barlevg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, how science usually works is that someone uses those results in their own research. And if the new results don't jive, one of the first steps is to verify the old research. If the old research can't be verified, they can publish and make a name for themselves out of refuting the previous work.

  2. Dubious Evidence by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As far as I can tell the article mentions that research has found one thing that might help in the formation of early life. They combine this with what evidence there is of the conditions on both Earth and Mars 3.5 billion years ago (and for Mars I imagine that is highly sketchy) and leap to the conclusion that life may have originated on Mars.

    If you find this even vaguely scientifically credible here are some questions to think about:
    • Is highly oxidised molybdenum the only possibility that could assist in the formation of early life or the only one they have found so far?
    • How certain are we of the conditions on Earth 3.5 billion years ago everywhere on the planet? What about deep ocean trenches - even if the surface lacked oxygen did these areas?
    • How certain are we that the conditions required existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago?
    • How likely is it that an organism which evolved under the conditions required would survive a journey from Mars to Earth on a blasted out chunk of rock? We can find organisms now on Earth that might make the journey but out planet is teeming with a vast array of life - if a similar diverse array of life was present on Mars why hasn't some of it survived? It seems strange that none of these organism could survive on the surface of Mars now and yet survive a meteor impact followed by years in the cold vacuum of space ending with a fiery entry through Earth;s atmosphere.

    It's certainly possible but conjecture this wild without the evidence to back it up is just hard science fiction not science.