# So we bring back some ancient Martian microbes -What's the worst that could happen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706 "2003-06-27T05:41:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/1 "2003-06-27T05:41:29Z")
[Mars probes find more frozen water - Northern ice boosts search for ancient life](http://msnbc.com/news/931744.asp?0dm=C13MT) This article made me wonder what would happen in real world terms if some Martian bacteria from a soil sample does escape. Would it even be possible for it to survive on earth given it’s radically different home environment? > [@](#): > > THE NORTHERN ICE lies just below the Red Planet’s surface, according to Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, part of a team of U.S. and Russian scientists who made the discovery. > What they actually detected was hydrogen, which combines with oxygen to form water, but they spotted so much hydrogen that it could not have been anything else, Boynton said in a telephone interview. > “There’s just so much of it (hydrogen), it can’t be present in any other form,” Boynton said. He explained that small amounts of water are normally present in rocks and soil on Earth, but on Mars’ north pole, “we’re seeing amounts that are on the order of 80 to 90 percent ice by volume.” > The ice is uniformly distributed throughout the Martian soil, he said. > “What we think … is you could go almost anywhere in these high northern latitudes and dig down several inches (centimeters) to a foot (30 centimeters) or so and find ice there for you,” Boynton said. > This is good news for those who believe life might have been present on Mars in the past, since liquid water is a prerequisite for the development of Earth-type life. > If Mars was warm and wet at some point, as many astronomers think, the current wide distribution of ice would indicate a large region where water might have been capable of supporting life. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/2 "2003-06-27T05:48:48Z")
Microbes can be hardy creatures, so it’s possible that some could survive on Earth. As to what danger they could pose to us, it’s really impossible to say. After all, we don’t know how much alike they would be (or are) to our own natures. The microbes might not have anything like DNA at all. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/3 "2003-06-27T09:56:50Z")
Hrm. [BABB](http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/index.php) is down right now. ☹ Well, worst case scenario I can think of right now, is they’re made up of [right handed](http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/ESAFFPTHN6D_index_0.html) amino acids, they take over and we starve. Oh! And the last things left to eat for decades are mushrooms and lima beans. 😃 You might wanna read [this article](http://www.discover.com/mar_03/featalien.html) on sample containment. As another aside, I remember reading someplace that Armstrong or Aldrin were (I think touring) in some lunar containment facility, and noticed ants inside someplace. I guess they knew then the “containment” wasn’t really gonna contain anything that didn’t wanna be. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tarantula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Tarantula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarantula)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/4 "2003-06-27T10:04:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > \*\* What we think … is you could go almost anywhere in these high northern latitudes and dig down several inches (centimeters) to a foot (30 centimeters) \*\* What does “inches (centimeters)” - mean. Are they pretending that they are the same ? That’s weird. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/5 "2003-06-27T10:10:28Z")
Obviously inches aren’t the same as centimeters, but the phrase “several inches” (a fairly nonspecific expression) is for all practical purposes equivalent to the equally nonspecific “several centimeters” (whereas the more precise “1 foot” is approximately equal to “30 centimeters”). ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/6 "2003-06-27T11:25:02Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Nanoda WRT Martian microbes_ > \*\*… they take over and we starve. Oh! And the last things left to eat for decades are mushrooms and lima beans. 😃 > > … \*\* I like mushrooms. You guys can eat my lima beans, though. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/7 "2003-06-27T13:27:56Z")
There is some evidence that earth life has made & survived a trek that is worse than the Mars to Earth scenario. In a camera the Apollo 12 astronauts brought back to Earth from the U.S. Surveyor 3 robotic Moon lander (in November 1969) there was a terrestrial bacterium. Scientists reported that the biology survived the not only the unpressurized trip to the Moon, but then a 2.5 yr stay on the lunar surface. Especially if they were microbes that lived in the Ice (like in lake volstock) & didn’t interact the atmosphere at all, only gravity and radiation would be different on earth-- so it is possible. Knowing that **Tuckerfan** gave the right answer as to what might happen, let me talk now out my bottom: Worst case I can truly think might even have an outside chance of happening in real life: maybe they kill off another type of earth microbe which triggers somekind of ecological disaster somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![BellaVoce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@BellaVoce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellaVoce)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/8 "2003-06-27T13:38:59Z")
The best case scenario is that nothing would happen. No big deal. The worst case scenario is that it would be some weird bacterium or virus to which human beings have no immunity, which would then end life on earth as we know it. Read “The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Chrighton. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/9 "2003-06-27T15:09:22Z")
It might include the line, “Now we know what wiped out the Martians.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/10 "2003-06-27T15:15:24Z")
I’d like to think that a microbe for which earth-based physiology has no way to fight off an infection, maybe the microbe isn’t able to infect in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Apoptosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Apoptosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apoptosis)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/11 "2003-06-27T16:10:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Read “The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Chrichton. I’m assuming you’re being facetious here. I’d recommend reading “Travels” by Mr. Crichton to find out what a complete flake the man is. A medical degree does not an expert in microbiology make. -Apoptosis ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/12 "2003-06-27T16:24:00Z")
Due to the huge and highly competative ecosystem of Earth compared to the very much more limited (if existing at all) ecosystem on Mars, I’d have to say the Martian bacteria wouldn’t stand a chance. But I am no expert in these fields. On Earth I am aware of many cases where a small seperated ecosystem has been invaded by outside organisms from a larger ecosystem and been decimated by them (toads, rats imported into Australia for example). But are there any cases where the species from the smaller ecosystem has moved to a larger ecosystem and decimated an established species in that larger ecosystem? I can think only of the grey squirrel displacing european red squirells, but I don’t think the Americas ecosystem is really much smaller than the euyro-asian ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/13 "2003-06-27T16:46:20Z")
I would give 99-1 odds that any martian microbes would be completely harmless. Either they would be similar enough to already existing Earth microbes that we wouldn’t notice the difference, or they would be outcompeted by microbes specially adapted to Earth conditions. Everything I know about bacteria leads me to believe that there would be no real problem. However. The truth is, we really have no idea. Maybe martian microbes would metabolize every organic molecule on earth and turn the biosphere into gray goo. It strikes me as highly unlikely. Incredibly unlikely. So unlikely that we shouldn’t even worry about it. Wait. No, not that unlikely. We have a sample size of 1 biosphere here. So we assume that Earth’s biosphere is somewhat typical. But maybe our biosphere is totally whacked out, completely different from what you find on Mars or Europa or Tau Ceti VI. Maybe Earth is the only planet that supports life because every other planet has Chemical X or some such, and just by blind luck Earth doesn’t have any. Bring back Chemical X, or NanoBerserkers, or biosphere-eating bacteria and we’re through. So even though I don’t expect any problems from cross-planet contamination, it wouldn’t hurt to take a few precautions. No need to get crazy, but hey, let’s be safe. Use a condom every time, you never know who that other planet has been with. It doesn’t matter if they say they’re clean, how can you trust a planet you just met? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/14 "2003-06-27T16:51:52Z")
The _worst_ that could happen? The bacteria start building very small three-legged fighting machines and make a valiant effort at laying London to waste? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/15 "2003-06-27T16:58:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*\*The _worst_ that could happen? The bacteria start building very small three-legged fighting machines and make a valiant effort at laying London to waste? 🙂 \*\* London? Heck no. That was Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. At least that’s where the original _War of the Worlds_ was set. I used to be in possession of an LP record of the original radio broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![bryanmcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@bryanmcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmcc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/16 "2003-06-27T16:59:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Apoptosis \* > **I’m assuming you’re being facetious here. I’d recommend reading “Travels” by Mr. Crichton to find out what a complete flake the man is. A medical degree does not an expert in microbiology make.** It is not completely impossible that an extraterrestrial microbe could cause terrible devastation to the Earth’s biosphere. Very, very unlikely, but not impossible. **Lemur866** is right: most probably, nothing at all would happen. But there is the possibility that the microbe has the ability to eat any organic material, with no predators or known weaknesses on Earth. That would spell big trouble for _Homo sapiens_, and it makes sense to take precautions. And, whether or not he’s a flake (I haven’t read _Travels_), he _does_ write some very entertaining, well researched, and usually fairly scientifically accurate stories – for instance, _Airframe_, _Jurassic Park_, and _Sphere_. Of course, some of the science has to pay the price of accuracy to make a good story. _C’est la vie_. (Then again, he does write some real crap, too – i.e., _The Terminal Man_ and _Prey_.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/17 "2003-06-27T17:02:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*London? Heck no. That was Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. At least that’s where the original _War of the Worlds_ was set. I used to be in possession of an LP record of the original radio broadcast. \*\* Maybe I’m being whooshed here, but it was London that was attacked in H. G. Wells _War of the Worlds_. Orson Welles changed it to NJ for the radio broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/18 "2003-06-27T17:02:51Z")
The most likely case by far is that absolutely nothing would happen. The Martian microbes, if any (and that alone is rather a long shot) would be in an environment radically different from what they’ve evolved for, and would be in competition with billions of other species which are in the environment they’ve evolved for. The worst-case mass extinction scenarios are exceedingly unlikely… But then, that’s pretty high stakes. So it makes sense to be carefull, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/19 "2003-06-27T18:52:56Z")
We find out it replicates itself like mad, consumes ozone, craps sarin, and votes Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706/20 "2003-06-27T18:55:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*Maybe I’m being whooshed here, but it was London that was attacked in H. G. Wells _War of the Worlds_. Orson Welles changed it to NJ for the radio broadcast. \*\* Well, no, I was referring to the radio broadcast, not the novel. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-bring-back-some-ancient-martian-microbes-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/184706.md?page=2)