Life on Mars? Scientists hope to find it by decoding Martian DNA

Life on Mars? Scientists hope to find it by decoding Martian DNA

phys.org

Apparently, there just aren't enough genomes for Craig Venter to sequence here on Earth, so he's making plans to send a DNA sequencer to Mars. "There will be life forms there," Venter said, with his usual confidence, at a Wired Health conference this week in New York. If he can build a machine to find it, the next steps would be to decode its DNA, beam it back to Earth, put those genetic instructions into a cell and then boot up a Martian life form in a biosecure lab.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Here is this guys summary on wiki.

John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biologist and entrepreneur. He is known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome[1] and for creating the first cell with a synthetic genome. Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and is now working at JCVI to create synthetic biological organisms. He was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Craig Venter at 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

While not as definitive as we would all like, two things to take from this story. 1. A very influential mainstream scientist believes there to be life or prior life on mars. 2. This is a very conservative online science journal. It's nice to know that they will take it seriously and have such a suggesting article title.

phys.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by ubeenhad

Life on Mars? Scientists hope to find it by decoding Martian DNA

phys.org

Apparently, there just aren't enough genomes for Craig Venter to sequence here on Earth, so he's making plans to send a DNA sequencer to Mars. "There will be life forms there," Venter said, with his usual confidence, at a Wired Health conference this week in New York. If he can build a machine to find it, the next steps would be to decode its DNA, beam it back to Earth, put those genetic instructions into a cell and then boot up a Martian life form in a biosecure lab.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh if GMO stuff isn't bad enough, lets recreate lifeforms from another planet.....I'm sure nothing will go wrong...........

reply to post by pavil


I believe you are right. And as long as we make sure the government is involved in some way, everything will be 100% safe and secure. I'm positive that nothing will go wrong.

Originally posted by ubeenhad


Here is this guys summary on wiki.

John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biologist and entrepreneur. He is known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome[1] and for creating the first cell with a synthetic genome. Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and is now working at JCVI to create synthetic biological organisms. He was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Craig Venter at 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

While not as definitive as we would all like, two things to take from this story. 1. A very influential mainstream scientist believes there to be life or prior life on mars. 2. This is a very conservative online science journal. It's nice to know that they will take it seriously and have such a suggesting article title.

phys.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Venter is a real maverick in the science community.

www.businessweek.com...

Check that article for a pretty good overview of his achievements.

Very few people could claim that they are trying to do such a thing and be taken seriously... Venter is one of those.

This is the equivalent of Richard Branson saying he's launching a commercial space travel business.

I'm sure his intentions may very well be honorable, but what are the possible reprecussions? How could the information be misused?

"I've heard tell the road to hell is paved with good intentions" ~from a song I can't remember the name of.

Of course, life must be found on Mars before they could even get DNA to decode. I believe it's possible, perhaps not probable though.