Posthuman Blues

TOXIC MARS

That's a little disappointing, but finding life on Mars wouldn't necessarily be that much of a bombshell anyway. The possibility that life was carried there on ejecta material following a major impact event here on Earth would always cast a shadow over the discovery of Martian microbes. The upside is that if Mars really is a totally dead world, then we can colonize and terraform it without any serious ethical qualms.

I still think we'll find Martian life. Probably not on the surface, but hiding deep below. Whether it will be truly Martian, of Earth origin, or from elsewhere promises to be one of the central exobiological mysteries of our time.