Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 6114348" data-attributes="member: 19675">Smart people do, but they're the exception.Perhaps you remember in 2007, when Atlanta personal-injury lawyer Andrew &quot;Drew&quot; Speaker flew from Atlanta, Georgia to Paris, France and on to Greece and then Italy before returning on a flight from Prague, Czech Republic to Montreal, Canada, where he crossed over the border and back into the United States while infected with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis?That's not the worst form of tuberculosis, but it IS a serious infectious disease transmitted via aerosolized particles.Certainly.However, even with sharing 90+% of our DNA, viruses do not jump easily from species to species with pathogenic virulence.There was a recent report of a newly discovered deep-ice (or was it deep sea?) organism with less than 90% similarity.Unless Martian and terrestrial life share a common origin, it is likely that we share less than 50% of our DNA...assuming they're even carbon based.Note, however, that doesn't answer the question or risk.&nbsp; Depending on the virus's mechanisms, it might still be dangerous to us.&nbsp; Who knows- the bioweapon might produce arsenic as a side effect of its presence in a human body- a completely different method of killing than it uses to kill Martians.One would hope, however, that those involved in producing a bioweapon would test it to see how it interacts with terrestrial biology,The difference is chiefly one of scale- which DOES present unique challenges- but the same could be said of moving space rocks 2.5 miles wide from the asteroid belt.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 6114348, member: 19675"] Smart people do, but they're the exception. Perhaps you remember in 2007, when Atlanta personal-injury lawyer Andrew "Drew" Speaker flew from Atlanta, Georgia to Paris, France and on to Greece and then Italy before returning on a flight from Prague, Czech Republic to Montreal, Canada, where he crossed over the border and back into the United States while infected with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis? That's not the worst form of tuberculosis, but it IS a serious infectious disease transmitted via aerosolized particles. Certainly. However, even with sharing 90+% of our DNA, viruses do not jump easily from species to species with pathogenic virulence. There was a recent report of a newly discovered deep-ice (or was it deep sea?) organism with less than 90% similarity. Unless Martian and terrestrial life share a common origin, it is likely that we share less than 50% of our DNA...assuming they're even carbon based. Note, however, that doesn't answer the question or risk. Depending on the virus's mechanisms, it might still be dangerous to us. Who knows- the bioweapon might produce arsenic as a side effect of its presence in a human body- a completely different method of killing than it uses to kill Martians. One would hope, however, that those involved in producing a bioweapon would test it to see how it interacts with terrestrial biology, The difference is chiefly one of scale- which DOES present unique challenges- but the same could be said of moving space rocks 2.5 miles wide from the asteroid belt. [/QUOTE]

Verification