Almost everywhere you go on Earth, you encounter alien specie: that were introduced - often inadvertently - by humans. Now it seems possible that we have done the same to Mars. Despite stringent rules designed to preven contamination, Earth microbes may have reached the Red Planet. That might look like a blow for efforts to detect Martian life. But, ironically, it may end up being the opposite. Some planetary scientists argue that if contamination is already likely, we should now throw caution to the wind (see page 8). The strict rules actually hamper the search for life by adding unnecessary costs to missions, they say.
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