Martian microbes research and lessons learnt for forensic science

Abstract

A new method for looking for life outside the Earth is used as an example to demonstrate how ways of presenting complex scientific concepts to the general public, used in planetary science, could be used in forensic science. The work led to a pared down, practical definition of detectable Life for planetary exploration, An organised system capable of processing energy sources to its advantage. For nearly three quarters of Earth’s history the only lifeforms were microbes, which are the target for looking for extraterrestrial life. Microbes are microscopic and may be sparsely distributed, but their metabolic products can form large, durable rocks, much easier to find and which may contain the organisms or their remains.

There are similar challenges in presenting astrobiological and forensic science. Both may have to deal with very large or very small numbers which are not immediately comprehensible but can be understood by analogy. To increase the impact on the listener or reader, dramatic analogues are valuable, for example, referring to the mineralised microbial metabolic products as, “fossilised breath of bacteria” demands the audience's attention and engages them before more detailed explanations are given. The power of practical experiments or demonstrations is most important to reinforce what might otherwise be a fairly abstract concept. Surprisingly, most of these approaches can be made to work equally well in both spoken and written forms as well as in both sciences.