Alien Infection By: Leslie Mullen

It appears you failed to read past the opening paragraph.

"Even though there is no proof of bacterial or viral pathogens anywhere except Earth, there is already a worried advocacy group called the International Committee Against Martian Sample Return, and science fiction novels like "The Andromeda Strain" depict nightmare alien infection scenarios."

Congratulations on reaching the scientific status of Andromeda strain as many here have noted.

"Some viruses and microbes rely on specific biological systems in order to replicate and infect their host, so not all pathogens affect all organisms the same way. Chicken farmers, for instance, can remain untouched by a disease that decimates their flocks. It could be that a martian microbe would enter the human body, but is rendered harmless because it is incompatible with human physiology."

"After living in the dirt of Mars, a pathogen could see our bodies as a comparable host; they could treat us 'like dirt,'" says John Rummel, NASA's Planetary Protection Officer. "But, to quote Donald Rumsfeld, we're dealing with the unknown unknowns. It could be that even if the microbes lived inside us, they wouldn't do anything, it would just be this lump living inside you."

"The conditions on Mars are much different than those in the human body, so an inert pathogen seems the most likely scenario -- especially since any life on Mars would have evolved without humans being present. Co-evolution is why some pathogens only affect certain organisms."

Rummel forgot to support these comments by mentioning that heat loving or cold loving extremophiles do not survive in the opposite extremes.

"The distance between humans and corals emphasizes the possibility that certain organisms may prove pathogenic across a wide evolutionary divide," Chyba writes.

"Of course, the evolutionary divide between humans and coral would not be as wide a gulf as between any martian organisms and human beings. Yet one theory for the origin of life on Earth is that it was transferred here from Mars by meteorites. This variant of the "Panspermia" theory suggests that life on Earth and any life on Mars might be closely related."

Chyba forgets to mention that this transfer theory that allows more close relation also implies that Earth is already being contaminated by Martian organisms. If they are hazardous we need to study them under controlled conditions to mitigate any putative hazard just as we do with infectious known diseases. This is probably not mentioned because the slant of the article is justifying planetary protection and containment but not the ridiculous orbiting facility BD favors. Rummel does address the point later when raised by the author.

"There may indeed be a natural exchange of microbes between Earth and Mars," says Rummel. "But we're being cautious, and we will apply the appropriate controls. We can't make the risk zero, but we can make it very small. That's the reason why space exploration is so important -- it allows us to start to address the sorts of questions we are asking."

Rummel addresses BD's EP like waste of money below.

"Fearing that containment or sterilization will not be adequate for protecting the Earth from potential pathogens in martian samples, some have suggested that the International Space Station (ISS) should be used to study samples. But Rummel doesn't agree."

"A lot of time and resources are needed to keep the station where it is, but what goes up must eventually come down," says Rummel. "ISS has an orbital life of decades, not hundred of thousands of years. Knowing that, we need to ask if it is a good place to conduct biological research."

"Containment is also a problem, since there's not much space to work with," Rummel adds. "What do you do if a person on board is exposed? The Earth, on the other hand, has ample space to deal with accidents, or to build a new lab next door, if necessary."

Now I see what you meant by debunking Barry. I wouldn't have guessed you meant yourself.

Thanks for the support,
Mark