Ice oceans discovered on Mars!

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Even so, what you are not appreciating is that at a basic level, an organisms ability to cause disease in (for example) a human is dependent upon its ability to enter the host and trigger a response.

Does Dutch Elm Disease affect humans? Do any plant destroying bacteria/virii affect humans in an adverse way? Surely most/all pathogens that affect humans have evolved with animals and in particular mammals and so the leap from species to species is not too extreme?

[KrazyHorse]

I would think that the most dangerous microorganisms from a foreign planet would be molds, or perhaps necrotizing bacteria; ones that actually use you as a food source by eating your flesh and aren't as dependent on some of the specifics.

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I think we should divy up the oceans proportional to coastline length...

I think Naval capability makes more sense...


You English Quebecer, you.

[Dauphin]

Fractal coastlines

I think we should divy up the oceans proportional to coastline length...

You know full-well that a coastline is as long as you want it to be.

[MrFun]

I'm all for shipping all Canadians to Mars, and then we Americans can have all of Canada to ourselves to exploit to the point of environmental destruction.

[KrazyHorse]

I just think you have problems with the following dataset

1. Canada 243,791 km (152,369 miles)
2. Russia 37,653 km (23,533 miles)
3. Australia 25,760 km (16,100 miles)
4. US 19,924 km (12,452 miles)

[KrazyHorse]

Re: Fractal coastlines

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin

I think we should divy up the oceans proportional to coastline length...

You know full-well that a coastline is as long as you want it to be.

There are internationally recognized standards of what resolution you use.

[KrazyHorse]

Canada's coastline has, IIRC fractional dimension ~1.7 while US has ~1.3. If you want to use finer and finer scale, that's fine with me...

[Az]

first, we have to find them there .

I think what we should be careful about is what bugs we bring there.

If true colonies would emerge, I think that tests performed by overpaid workers are a must.

[SpencerH]

Thats a tough one, I cant think of anything except fungi. Again its not required that the organism be a pathogen in its natural host in order to cause disease in humans. Plants themselves cause many diseases in humans including asthma. Its not impossible to postulate a released martian organism growing quite benignly in its new niche on earth but that triggered anaphalactic shock and death in an exposed population.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Plants themselves cause many diseases in humans including asthma. Its not impossible to postulate a released martian organism growing quite benignly in its new niche on earth but that triggered anaphalactic shock and death in an exposed population.

But non-organic materials could do that. Martian dust could cause a variation of asbestosis. Its not the organism that is the problem if it is once removed.

Any diseases caused by indirect effects would not be contagious either. (?) A hayfever sufferer is not going to transmit hayfever to other people.

[SpencerH]

Martian dust wouldnt grow which would limit it our exposure. On the other hand a martian bug might grow here which increases our exposure and our risk. Whether any such martian organisms might cause a contagious disease is questionable, but its by no means impossible. Personally, I dont think its a small risk.

[Sandman]

You forgot that Mars isn't very flat. Enough water to cover the surface in a uniform 500 metres wouldn't cover 90% of Mars by the time it had all flowed downhill; more like 15%.

Well, they haven't even looked at the northern hemisphere yet, so even more water could be hiding.

But yes, I probably was over-reacting. The northern hemisphere is three miles lower than the southern, so all the water would flow north.

[Az]

actually, if the earth was a perfect sphere it would be covered by 2000 meters of water ...

[Sandman]

Found a nifty little program that lets you raise or lower the water level on Mars.

Download it here:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg/marsview.htm

What's interesting is that there is a big, shallow, northern ocean, and a small, deep, southern ocean.