Craig Venter, one of the pioneers of decoding the human genome, the creator of the first synthetic cell and just a businessman, has made loud statements before that synthetic bacteria will help us colonize Mars
At Wired's health conference last week, he revisited the topic by talking about plans to send a robotic DNA sequencing machine (he calls it a "biological teleport") to the Red Planet that would sift through local soil in search of sequences or fragments, sending the results of the decryption to Earth. Based on this information, scientists would synthesize Martian organisms for further research. That's it, no fuss with the delivery of soil samples to Earth.
Mr. Venter does not throw words to the wind. For several years now, he and his colleagues have been conducting experiments to detect DNA fragments in seawater samples. And he assured the audience at the conference that technologies that could be useful on Mars were beginning to be tested in the California Mojave Desert. It could be in time for the next flight that NASA has planned for 2016 (InSight project).
The scientist is absolutely convinced that there is DNA life on Mars. And he cannot be ridiculed. Although the Vikings in 1976 could not find evidence of even traces of life, with this experiment, not everything is clear. In addition, such extremophiles have been found on Earth that are able to live deep below the surface of the planet without needing solar energy. Why not be similar on Mars?
The debate over whether there was water on the Red Planet continues, and the balance seems to be tilting towards those who believe in Martian rivers. The Curiosity rover also recently supported them. But the water, alas, dried up billions of years ago, and biologists have just established that DNA has a more or less stable half-life, allowing its fragments to last only about one and a half million years.
Therefore, it makes sense to look only for the remains of organisms that lived on Mars recently (from a geological point of view). And Mr. Venter is not alone in this. The MIT has been creating an ancient DNA and RNA sequencer SETG (Search for Extraterrestrial Genomes) for seven years. It is based on a chip developed by Ion Torrent. Field trials are already underway: Scientists have tested the device on an active volcano in Argentina, which is chemically similar to Mars, and are planning to return there in January.
By the way, Morten Allentoft from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), who led the research on the half-life of DNA, believes that on Mars everything could be different - in both good and bad ways. On the one hand, the radiation that processes the surface of the Red Planet accelerates the decay of DNA. On the other hand, in a dry and cold anoxic environment, DNA can last longer than on Earth. But do not look for it in hard tissues - only inside individual cells or in the form of fragments of free DNA. And this is the main nuisance, emphasizes Mr. Allentoft, because without the protective environment created by bones and teeth, DNA degrades much faster.
It is also possible that life on Mars existed or exists in other forms, and the search for DNA will not give anything …