# We find life on Mars - do you care? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005 "2010-09-25T14:45:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/21 "2010-09-26T02:02:15Z")
I voted “Pretty Interesting.” If this were the 1990s or 2090s, I would have voted “Find of the Century.” No matter the century, something bigger always comes along as it progresses. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/22 "2010-09-26T02:33:11Z")
It would be very interesting. Even more interesting would be finding the fossil of a developed species. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/23 "2010-09-26T12:50:29Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > (The Koran allows for life elsewhere, BTW.) Just curious…is there a specific passage you can quote? And does it say, “Mohammed says there is life somewhere else in the Universe,” or is it open to multi- or pious-interpretation? ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/24 "2010-09-26T15:08:09Z")
Didn’t we already find microorganisms on another planet? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/25 "2010-09-26T15:23:58Z")
We found what some felt were evidence of microorganisms in Martian meteorites, but IIRC it was a disputed claim … others said the formations could have been produced by non-organic means. So it’s still an open case. I will not be at all surprised to see evidence of microorganisms in Martian rocks… the Earth devleoped micro-organisms almost as soon as it had settled down sufficiently for organic life to exist. What I will be surprised and dismayed to see will be evidence of multicellular organic life, something beyond sheets of blue-green algae. Once celled microorganisms moved into Earth as soon as it was habitable it took more than two billion years for true multicellular life to evolve. To put that in perpective, ALL the evolution from simple microorganisms like jellyfish to us has taken only half a billion years. If evidence of multicullular organisms show up on Mars, it will mean that multicellular organisms are commonplace in the universe, which means that intelligence must be a very, very rare … perhaps nonexistent except for here on Earth … phenomenon indeed. Else why is there no evidence of intelligent civilizations that have existed long before we did? Its’ not like the universe hasnt had 15 billion years to come up with them, and if intelligence is NOT an incredibly rare phenomenon, the universe should be crawling with them. But … not the least jot or tittle of evidence. In any event, an interesting phenonemon, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/26 "2010-09-26T15:24:34Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > > [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > > > (The Koran allows for life elsewhere, BTW.) > > Just curious…is there a specific passage you can quote? And does it say, “Mohammed says there is life somewhere else in the Universe,” or is it open to multi- or pious-interpretation? I am sorry to say I cannot provide a cite, except for years or students telling me it is so. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/27 "2010-09-26T15:25:33Z")
> [@Chakra Nadmara](#): > > Didn’t we already find microorganisms on another planet? No. Are you thinking about the Antarctica find, [a supposed import from Mars on a meterorite?](http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nasa1.html) That requires a great stretch of belief and highly improbable circumstances. A great deal more proof is necessary before this becomes generally accepted. [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/space/4096212.html](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/space/4096212.html) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/28 "2010-09-26T15:26:49Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > > [@Musicat](#): > > > > Just curious…is there a specific passage you can quote? And does it say, “Mohammed says there is life somewhere else in the Universe,” or is it open to multi- or pious-interpretation? > > I am sorry to say I cannot provide a cite, except for years or students telling me it is so. Good enough for me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/29 "2010-09-26T16:41:42Z")
> [@hougaswd](#): > > > [@Otara](#): > > > > I think it would partly depend on how the life developed there. > > > > If for instance it was from a meteorite that got transported from earth as has been hypothesised, that would prove that life is very hardy, but wouldnt definitively prove life can develop on a planet other than earth. > > > > Otara > > Yes. > > If the DNA was identical to an Earth organism (current or historical), very interesting. > > If the DNA (or other genetic material) was not related, the find of the century at least. > > Walt This. If it’s related to life here, that’s big but not HUGE. Finding unrelated life anywhere would be enormous. But I also agree with **Evil Captor** that a related but even more important find would be multi-cellular organisms. I don’t necessarily agree with his further opinion that finding such on Mars would conclusively establish that intelligence is very rare. Let’s say that I’m a doctor and I’m interested in knowing if there are other doctors, and how many. If I discover a single other person, that’s good. It definitely means it’s possible that there may be more doctors. If I find out that that person is a college graduate (knowing for the sake of this exercise that all doctors are college graduates before they are doctors) but not a doctor, does that mean that I can expect fewer doctors out there than I could expect if this person had not been a college graduate? I don’t think so. We know right now that there are two really important stages in the development of life. One is life at all, the other is multi-cellular life. We really don’t have a lot of information to determine how significant or rare developing sapience is. We can’t even really define sapience. Neanderthals were sapient (probably), but what about _Homo Erectus_? _Homo Habilis_? What about the hobbits on Flores? The fact is, we don’t know how many sapient species Earth has produced thus far. But we also don’t know how firm the line between sapience and technology is. We haven’t reached the stars yet. We have no mechanism for doing so. It’s by no means a certainty that we ever will. It’s possible that civilization is inherently self-destructive. Or maybe just our version of it is. There could be a species like us in every star system, none of them having any means of detecting any of the others. We’re one small, unexceptional star among a hundred billion in our galaxy alone. The chances of another civilization, no matter how high tech, finding us are slim. Finding unrelated multi-cellular life on another planet is a step in the right direction, not the wrong one. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/30 "2010-09-26T17:26:33Z")
[Untitled Document](http://www.theguardians.com/Microbiology/gm_mbm04.htm) Extremophiles have been discovered in terribly unfriendly to life conditions , from deep underground to volcanic vents. It has relaxed our computations on the conditions that are necessary to spawn life. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/31 "2010-09-26T17:39:47Z")
It would be the find of the millenium. Of course you’d have to be able to bring it back or someone would dispute it. Second you would have to determain, did life get to Earth from Mars? Or did somehow this life on Mars come from the Earth? Or was it deposited by something else? If so, what? But it would at least say, “OK we’re not alone.” It would also give a good clue to seeing how life in general develops. If it has a DNA structure similar to Earth life, then it’s an important thing. If it has something totally different, well it’s even a better find. It would open up a whole new host of questions. Science hesistates to advance further on guesses only. It’s like String Theory. Right now we have applications of it, lots of them, since we can’t prove it, and aren’t likely to prove it, to scientific standards it remains simmering on the back burner. If you could find a way to prove strings, you could get much more money for research. Right now it’s like “Why waste money looking for life?” And that makes sense to a degree not to divert funds from projects on the Earth to be “chasing rainbows” so to speak. But if we knew something was out there, it’d be easier to justify the research and money ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/32 "2010-09-26T18:06:26Z")
It would be pretty interesting. It all depends upon if that life is significantlly different from life on Earth. It only becomes the greatest discovery of all time if that life has little in common with Earth life. My opinion is that it will not be much different. There is surely life on Mars and it is probably much like primitive life here. Is it really a separate case of abiogenesis or a case of cross planet seeding via meteorite, comet or other method? It will interesting if something completely unlike life we know is found. If it is different it increases the likelyhood of life spontaneously arising in other parts of the universe, perhaps as a fundamental characteristic of matter. If it is the same or similar kind of life then, hey maybe the solar system is infected with this particular strain of DNA based life and we still don’t know if life could have started independently around another star or if what we have here is unique. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/33 "2010-09-26T18:19:25Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I’m amazed that anyone could even think of voting for anything other than “find of the century”. > > I mean, there aren’t many bigger questions than “Are we alone in the universe?” To get the answer to that would be probably the biggest discovery humankind has ever made. > [@Musicat](#): > > It will cause the bible thumpers to revise their stance on God’s Unique Creation, the Earth. They will scramble to find passages that heretofore were ignored, but now will be re-interpreted as predicting it all along. These were my two immediate responses. > [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > > [@Musicat](#): > > > > It will cause the bible thumpers to revise their stance on God’s Unique Creation, the Earth. They will scramble to find passages that heretofore were ignored, but now will be re-interpreted as predicting it all along. > > [Not all of them. The Catholics like planning ahead](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/vatican-looks-to-heavens-_n_352971.html) _Shakes fist_ ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/34 "2010-09-26T18:20:24Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I’d be interested, however my interest level would directly correspond to the type of life found. > > Single celled organisms? Meh. I’d read the first couple of articles, then forget about it. > > Multicellular organisms? Slightly more. > > Something as complex as simple plants? A lot. > > Little green men? I’m scared. Hold me. I think this fits what I was going to say best. Though my fear would be more for the little green men than for us (well, maybe a little bit would be for us). We as a species have had a rather unfortunate tendency to exploit newly discovered beings, and I don’t think that tendency has entirely gone away within the last half century. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/35 "2010-09-26T18:58:22Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Find of the Century. It would profoundly impact our understanding of how life works, develops, spreads, etc. Intellectually it would be tremendously exciting. Exactly. As of right now, all we know about life is what we have on this planet. Life elsewhere will be huge, whether it’s the same as stuff on Earth or radically different. Both possibilities are so exciting! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/36 "2010-09-26T21:38:01Z")
If the negative could be demonstrated, that would also be extremely significant, if discouraging. If someday we find underground aquifers of liquid water on Mars, and they prove to be completely sterile, that would be an astonishing blow to the belief that life is ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/37 "2010-09-26T22:09:46Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > If the negative could be demonstrated, that would also be extremely significant, if discouraging. If someday we find underground aquifers of liquid water on Mars, and they prove to be completely sterile, that would be an astonishing blow to the belief that life is ubiquitous. If Mars is suitable for life that might only encourage the search. Much of the belief in life’s prevalance is based on a large-number argument. If stars have on average as few as .001 suitable planets each and the chance for life on a suitable planet is only 1 in a million, that still multiplies out to 50 trillion planets with life in the observable universe. This runs into Fermi’s Paradox: If life is so common why haven’t aliens made their presence known here? (Possibly because they’re interested only in intelligent life? :smack:) > [@Musicat](#): > > It will cause the bible thumpers to revise their stance on God’s Unique Creation, the Earth. Since 64% of Americans believe aliens have contacted Earthlings and 45% of Americans believe God created Man within the last few thousand years, I’m not sure of this. Simple arithmetic would prove _at least_ 9% of Americans _already_ believe both in alien life and an Adam-Eve story, and one can safely guess the number is much larger. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/38 "2010-09-26T22:13:39Z")
I suspect we will find evidence of ancient life on Mars. But life most likely died out long ago-anything alive now will probably be bacterial. Which raises the question: how can we be sure that any bacteria we find are not of earth origin? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/39 "2010-09-26T23:18:21Z")
I think “it’s the find of the century” might be underselling the importance of it. Arguably, it would be the most important event in human history. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005/40 "2010-09-27T00:00:08Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > This runs into Fermi’s Paradox: If life is so common why haven’t aliens made their presence known here? (Possibly because they’re interested only in intelligent life? :smack:) Distance, my friend. Incredible distance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-find-life-on-mars-do-you-care/555005.md?page=3)