In my ignorance, I seem to be missing something. Talking about the "risk of
cross-pollination": risk of what? "We are going to have to be very careful."
Careful of what? If Martian microbes contaminate Earth microbes or vice
versa, what might happen? Please help a layman understand. Thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel R. Zeigler, Ph.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 9:10 AM
Subject: RE: Microoganisms and Phylogeny
>
>
> > 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/
>
==
You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
