> I doubt "cross-pollination" will ever be a legitimate concern.
I basically agree with both Jayme and Michael on this point. A truly alien
biochemistry might very well be fundamentally similar to our own (see N.
Pace. 2001. "The Universal Nature of Biochemistry" Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
98:805-808). I personally feel that all cellular life is likely to be based
around nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and their building blocks. Even so,
it seems extremely unlikely that all the details of an independently-derived
genetic code would wind up being close enough that an alien gene would
function inside a terrestrial organism. *If* Earth seeded Mars with
microbes via impact debris, however, or if Mars seeded Earth, then the
genetics would probably be close enough. That's not to say that such
cross-pollination would necessarily even be bad. It happens on Earth all
the time. I'm quite optimistic that the actual risk is very low. But since
no one can say the risk is zero, and since one mistake could be fatal, we're
going to have to be very, very careful.
Dan Zeigler
==
You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
