If microbial life is found on Mars, what will the reaction be on Earth?
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answers:
daniel g say: Just another scientific discovery, might indicate a higher probability of life 'out there'.
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STORMY K say: we will all be given oversized fly swatters
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Andrew S say: Science people: Interesting.
Most people: Can we eat it?
Internet people: Star Wars is real!
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YKhan say: Most will just say, "Well, that's kinda cool!"
Nobody is afraid of microbial life, it's if they found sentient life on Mars that some people might start worrying.
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say: that already happened in the mid-1990s. nasa scientists discovered fossilized microbes in a martian meteorite proving mars once harbored life in the distant past. the discovery merited a ten second segment on the 6:00 o'clock news and everyone had forgotten it within a week or two.
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Ronald 7 say: We would wonder if it was edible
Or at least fuel after 1/2 Million Years
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megalomaniac say: In 1996 a group of scientists claimed they found some fossilized microbes on a meteorite that supposedly came from Mars. It was controversial at the time and it still is. There has never been any fully accepted evidence of any life originating from outside our planet. If there ever is, it would be revolutionary.
However: "These claims were controversial from the beginning, and the wider scientific community ultimately rejected the hypothesis once all the unusual features in the meteorite had been explained without requiring life to be present."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hill...
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Ranger say: Fossilized Microbes have been found on Mars. There once was life on Mars.
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oldprof say: The pharmas would start new programs to find an Rx for those new germs.
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say: I think it was found... but no one cared.
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daniel g say: Just another scientific discovery, might indicate a higher probability of life 'out there'.
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ReductioAdAstronomicus say: Zilch.
The media would go into one of it's frothy states of hyperventilation for a few days before returning to it's obsession with crime and sleaze. Professional biologists would be delighted to have another species to categorize. But apart from that the discovery would have no use except as a trivia night topic.
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Jeremy Auldaney say: They will never find microbial life or any other life or artifacts outside the earth unless it was taken there from earth. If they did it would be touted as evidence of evolution which is a hoax.
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Lord Percy Fawcette-Smythe. say: The USA will send a special cleansing team there to neutralise this threat to the security of the USA. 40 or 50 100 megaton bombs should end this aggressive anti American threat to the American way of life. Hahahahahahahahaha.
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Joe say: How can I make money off of those damn microbes ??
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Campbell Hayden say: As far back as the 1970's, one of the Viking landers
DID perform and complete an experiment in which the
gasses they were seeking to determine if there was anything
*organic* in the soil, provided a positive result.
This NASA approved experiment authored by Dr. Gilbert Levin
came up with a 100% positive result. The experiment met NASA
standards and criteria, meaning that life was indeed present.
But rather unexpectedly, the results were immediately quashed
and downplayed ... and I suspect that if any "new" information is
released to the public now or in the near future, the reaction will be
just as mixed as it would have been 50 years ago.
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Sharon say: Brits will leave it.
French will ignore as inedible and not speaking French
Germans will seek an Anschluss
Moslems will view it as not Halal and pagan
Russians will say it was originally from Russia
China will seek to oppress its politics
Americans will try to figure out how to make a profit from it
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ANDY say: Since the endeavor to know if extraterrestrial life could be found somewhere in the universe, and since somewhere in the universe means locations not reachable because of distance, finding a life nearby in Mars─microbial or not─would confirm that "somewhere in the universe" there is a greater probability than thought to be that life is or can be supported on other exoplanets.
This would be an awesome discovery that humans finally are not alone in this immense cosmos.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: I think most of the reaction would be from scientific entities... the average man on the street probably wouldn't care much at all if microbes were found beyond Earth - but, for people interested in the subject - it would mean that life is *possible* beyond Earth - and would likely trigger a more intensive search on finding it...
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Bookbinder say: Some scientists will jump up and down with joy, and issue press releases, but most people will just shrug their shoulders, and go 'ho, hum. What's for tea?'.
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The Football God say: We need a dome instead of a wall.
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daniel g say: Just another scientific discovery, might indicate a higher probability of life 'out there'.
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CarolOklaNola say: Everything from mass panic to total denial to delight to total indifference.
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Notatroll say: The conservatives will demonize it as a liberal plot against the GOP and also say it's against the bible so it's the work of the devil. Every time there is a scientific discovery that's how they react.
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Gerald say: that's us in the near future
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Robert say: I'm guessing it will be an increased fear of germs
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