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Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Terraforming good for Mars original life? - it *had* a warm wet past, so...

Most people are of the opinion that *if* there is still life on Mars, terraforming efforts would kill it, because Mars life is not adapted to more Earth-like conditions.

I think i disagree...

Considering the new findings that indicate a warmer, wetter past, where life might have evolved, i think that life (let's suppose for simplicity there was life AND there still are descendants hanging on... And they are functionally analougeous to our genetic systems definition of life)

That life...will *initially* have evolved for warm, wet conditions.
... As things got rougher, the drying and cooling, the increase in radiation, those life forms surely adapted as good as they could, but they didn't "like" it, for sure, a friendly enviro is always preferrable to a harsher one...
Now in genetics, there's something like a 'memory' : genes that code for certain 'capabilities in a given environment' are retained in the genome for many, many generations, even when those genes don't do much for survival *today*, they're still there. That makes sense, for it adds to long-time survival: every 'trick' you learn and that is useful in a given situation is worth remembering, it adds to your 'survival Swiss-knive'

So the (assumed) still-living creatures on Mars might quite probably still have a sleeping 'library' of genes that are adapted to warmer, wetter conditions, and would be able to adapt to climate-changes that restore the original situation in wich they evolved?

Given the fact the organisms are probably primitive, short-lived, they might reproduce faster and faster in better conditions, also allowing them to express their old 'tricks' to survive, and given the terraformation efforts are slow, they might have plenty of time to adapt...

Ok. Start yelling at me 

dicktice

Member

From: Nova Scotia, Canada

Registered: 2002-11-01

Posts: 1,764

Re: Terraforming good for Mars original life? - it *had* a warm wet past, so...

I hope that's not as scary as it sounds. . . .

MarsDog

Member

From: vancouver canada

Registered: 2004-03-24

Posts: 852

Re: Terraforming good for Mars original life? - it *had* a warm wet past, so...

On Earth, we have bacteria everywhere.
All the antiseptic products kill only a certain percentage.
-
Will be interesting to see how Earth bacteria thrive on Mars,
Throw in a cockroach or 2 to begin the colonization.