re: Uhhh, Ed - How radioactive is Three Mile Island Nuclear reactor?
Deinoccus radiodurans is a species of bacteria, able to repair its own mutations as well as withstand 1,000 times more radiation exposure than would kill a human being. It was found to survive and grow inside the Three Mile Island Nuclear reactor core! This is an organisms that supposedly evolved to conditions on Earth let alone any that could adapt to conditions Mars.
Strategies used by microorganisms to increase their resistence to radiation are not undrestood very well at this stage.
We are only in the beginning stages of undestanding the limits to life on our world. It is estimated that only 3% or less of all species is currently known - for Earth.
BD