The Great Search for Life

I love science news and this past week has had some fantastic finds.

NASA have landed another robot on Mars, this time near the northern pole. Theyŕe searching for ice in the hope that the robots scientific equipment might find signs of the building blocks of life in the frozen water.

Meanwhile, another bunch of boffins, using a telescope atop a New Zealand mountain, have discovered a distant planet 3 times the size of Earth orbiting a distant dim star. Some have even speculated that the planet has a thick atmosphere and even liquid oceans and even the possibly of these oceans being made up of water. Again, the idea is that where thereś water thereś life.

And then comes a story from deep inside the Amazon jungle of Brazil of the discovery of a previously unknown tribe of indigenous people.

Ironic, is it not, that there is billions of dollars spent every year looking into space for life and yet new life can be found with a small aeroplane and a camera right here on Earth.

The Brazilian government have a no-contact policy for the many ¨uncontacted¨ tribes in their country, which I must commend . The worst thing that these people could have happen to them is to come into contact with the so-called Civilised World. First thereś all our diseases that no longer bother us thanks to our built-up immunity and vaccinations. And then thereś all the other things that would be horrible to pass on to these people; like money, TV, Top 40 music, the Internet and blogs :-)

I wonder what the policy is for when life is found on another world?