# Was HG Wells Right? Alien Beings Would Be Destroyed By Earth Bacteria? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195 "2010-06-06T20:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/21 "2010-06-07T17:16:10Z")
For what it’s worth, the bacteria don’t even have to properly digest the Martians to sicken and kill them. Even if we assume a wildly different biochemistry, there’s almost certainly going to be at least one thing a microorganism can digest. Yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis are examples along this line. The human is not being attacked directly by the microbes, but their unchecked growth causes huge problems nonetheless. If something like that happened in the lungs, blood or gut, it could easily be fatal. I’m also partly thinking of things like parasitic worms here on Earth that inhabit the digestive tract. They don’t eat people in any way, but they do siphon off the nutrients in our gut. They are not always fatal, but are definitely detrimental to our health. Many species have eggs that can get into the bloodstream and form cysts with other side effects. ---
**Author:** ![JackWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@JackWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackWhite)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/22 "2010-06-07T17:22:43Z")
Any alien life form sufficiently advanced to travel to our planet, would likely be sufficiently advanced to know about H.G. Wells and his book and that movie (or some equivalent concepts) and would likely have taken the necessary precautions. At least, that is my take on it. ---
**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 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/23 "2010-06-07T17:52:49Z")
Quoth **Blake** : > [@](#): > > Probably an organism from another planet would use an energy source consisting of a right handed isomer of a carbon chain with an ether in the middle, a carboxylic acid on the other an alkane on the other. Totally indigestible by anything on Earth. Do you mean that specifically, or just that it’d be something just as strange as that? Because absent common decent, there’s no real reason that right-handed isomers would be any more or less likely than left-handed. Nor is it implausible that they might use at least some of the same amino acids that we do: All of the amino acids we use are naturally-occurring in non-biological systems, and it’s presumed that such naturally-occurring amino acids were one of the building blocks for the first life as we know it. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/24 "2010-06-07T18:09:38Z")
In HG Wells’ story, Martians “ate” by transfusing blood directly from their victims, bypassing the need for a digestive system. That suggests an awful lot of common biochemistry if they’re able to get anything useful from our blood. So, conversely, that suggests the Martians have lots of nutritious biochemistry that earthling bacteria would love to eat. Such a method of feeding would require a powerful and robust immune system to protect them from Martian parasites, but that immune system would become vestigial after the Martians had killed all of their pathogens. In “reality”, like previous posters I’d be surprised if an alien biochemistry was similar to ours. Any major similarities would be evidence of common ancestry – which isn’t impossible. I agree with **Blake** that alien biochemistries are likely to have some sort of fatty acid analog, e.g. a hydrocarbon chain with a water-soluble end. But human chemists have come up with all sorts of similar compounds (they make great detergents!) that aren’t digestible by bacteria, so I would be surprised if our bacteria could eat alien lipids. ---
**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 7, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/25 "2010-06-07T19:58:16Z")
> [@](#): > > In HG Wells’ story, Martians “ate” by transfusing blood directly from their victims, bypassing the need for a digestive system. I don’t remember that at all. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/26 "2010-06-07T20:26:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t remember that at all. Yes, that’s in the book. The narrator and the curate observe it while in the ruined house: "Entrails they had none. They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, they took the fresh, living blood of other creatures, and INJECTED it into their own veins. I have myself seen this being done, as I shall mention in its place. But, squeamish as I may seem, I cannot bring myself to describe what I could not endure even to continue watching. Let it suffice to say, blood obtained from a still living animal, in most cases from a human being, was run directly by means of a little pipette into the recipient canal. . . . " ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/27 "2010-06-07T21:39:41Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > In HG Wells’ story, Martians “ate” by transfusing blood directly from their victims, bypassing the need for a digestive system. Which, unknown to HG Wells, would make some sense if you’ve killed off all your natural gut flora. Digestion would be less efficient and might have nasty side effects, like what happens to people who take antibiotics that kill off their gut flora. > [@](#): > > that immune system would become vestigial after the Martians had killed all of their pathogens. Maybe not, though. If the [hygiene hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis) turns out to be right, they might just get more allergies and autoimmune diseases as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/28 "2010-06-07T22:29:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nitpick, but an important one: They weren’t killed off by disease germs, but by the microbes responsible for decomposition. Disease germs tend to be very specific as to what they’ll attack, but rotters will eat just about anything that doesn’t fight back. Neat. Does that mean that all lifeforms on Earth right now has some sort of defense against these decomposition microbes? What are these “rotters” called? > [@Smeghead](#): > > But I think we’re assuming that aliens are smart enough to not wander around in our toxic atmosphere unprotected, any more than we’d land on another planet without space suits. This. Why would we expect aliens to arrive without basic protection against foreign gasses and biological matter? Even our basic human military goes to war with [nuclear-biological-chemical suits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_suit) and vehicles. That, or that they would’ve started an invasion without scouting and reconnaissance and determining whether Earth could sustain their life. Basically, we’d be assuming aliens capable of interplanetary travel but not basic life support? :dubious: Edit: Oh, I forgot… who needs microbial warfare when we could simply [spray them with firehoses? Or pee on them? Or, heck, expose them to our atmosphere?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signs_%28film%29) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/29 "2010-06-08T04:56:46Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Heck, most parts of our own planet will kill an unprotected human in a few hours. :dubious: If you include the deep oceans and the under the ground maybe. But most f the surface is perfectly habitable. > [@dracoi](#): > > Yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis are examples along this line. The human is not being attacked directly by the microbes, but their unchecked growth causes huge problems nonetheless. This doesn’t answer anything, all you’ve done is move the problem downwards, and it’s turtles all the way down. All organism need an energy source. What is the energy source here? For those infections the initial energy source are biological compounds excreted by the host. But if the host doesn’t possess any digestible compunds the microbes can’t survive. Simply put, nothing lives on nothing. Everything needs an energy source, if it’s not radiation then it needs to be something digestible. > [@Chronos](#): > > Do you mean that specifically, or just that it’d be something just as strange as that? Just a random example. The point being that there are thousands of alternative configurations of sugar analogues that are utterly indigestible, and probably toxic. > [@](#): > > Nor is it implausible that they might use at least some of the same amino acids that we do: All of the amino acids we use are naturally-occurring in non-biological systems, and it’s presumed that such naturally-occurring amino acids were one of the building blocks for the first life as we know it. Good point, but we don’t actually have clue. Some people make that assumption about the origin or biological AAs, and many other violently reject it. Even if this is true, there’s no reason why these things would utilise AAs rather than, for example, organohalides or organophosphates which also occur naturally. And even if hey did utilise AAs, there’s no reason at all why they would have the same configuration as our proteins. Heck, even on earth a lot of proteins are indigestible to most life. AAs bound up in indigestible polymers aren’t an energy source. > [@Reply](#): > > Neat. Does that mean that all lifeforms on Earth right now has some sort of defense against these decomposition microbes? What are these “rotters” called? The rotters are commonly called saprophytes or detritivores. There are billions of them for every pathogenic microbe. Your gut is chock full of the things. And yes, we have defences against them, which is why they are not pathogenic. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/30 "2010-06-08T16:35:32Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > This doesn’t answer anything, all you’ve done is move the problem downwards, and it’s turtles all the way down. All organism need an energy source. What is the energy source here? For those infections the initial energy source are biological compounds excreted by the host. But if the host doesn’t possess any digestible compunds the microbes can’t survive. > > Simply put, nothing lives on nothing. Everything needs an energy source, if it’s not radiation then it needs to be something digestible. At the beginning of my post, I stated that the micro-organisms only need one thing they can digest. The rest of the post was to point out how, with that one thing, they could still colonize and sicken an alien species that they cannot digest in general. I suppose simplifying it to “one thing” is maybe an exaggeration, since they’ll both energy for survival and raw materials for growth. That could be one single substance if its the right one, or a combination of things. But the point is that even an acid-for-blood, silicon-based xenomorph probably has something in its biochemistry that will allow micro-organisms to colonize it in some fashion. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/31 "2010-06-08T16:55:58Z")
Would they be vulnerable to our STD’s too? I hope not! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/32 "2010-06-09T04:47:44Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Would they be vulnerable to our STD’s too? I hope not! 😉 Them aliens are always lusting after Earthwomen. Serves 'em right if they get the clap as a result… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/33 "2010-06-09T05:09:11Z")
It doesn’t make sense that Martians would wipe out disease on their own planet, develop the technology to invade Earth, but not take precautions to protect them from our diseases. Something like going to war to stop an enemy from using WMD they didn’t have. Or anything else stupid any political ideologue has done. So yes, they likely would have succumbed to micro-organisms if they have political ideologues in charge. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/34 "2010-06-09T07:30:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > It doesn’t make sense that Martians would wipe out disease on their own planet, develop the technology to invade Earth, but not take precautions to protect them from our diseases. Something like going to war to stop an enemy from using WMD they didn’t have. Or anything else stupid any political ideologue has done. So yes, they likely would have succumbed to micro-organisms if they hve political ideologues in charge. They had wiped out diseases so long ago that they were long forgotten I believe. As I recall, the basic idea was that the Martians were the ultimate extreme of ancient, technology-dependent intelligent life; evolution or their own science had long ago pared them down to brains, hands(tentacles), eyes and little else. After they eliminated bacteria on their own homeworld they lost or eliminated their no-longer-useful immune systems. Then they forgot that such things even existed and why. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195/35 "2010-06-09T15:19:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They had wiped out diseases so long ago that they were long forgotten I believe. > > As I recall, the basic idea was that the Martians were the ultimate extreme of ancient, technology-dependent intelligent life; evolution or their own science had long ago pared them down to brains, hands(tentacles), eyes and little else. After they eliminated bacteria on their own homeworld they lost or eliminated their no-longer-useful immune systems. Then they forgot that such things even existed and why. Ok, sorry, never read the book. That must have been something related by the author, not the Martians themselves. Well if they wiped out disease, maybe they wiped out the political ideologues as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hg-wells-right-alien-beings-would-be-destroyed-by-earth-bacteria/542195.md?page=1)