Atacama's lessons about life on Mars
Even in the driest places on Earth there is life eking out an existence, it seems. Scientists have examined the soils in those parts of the Atacama desert that may not see any rains for decades. Still, the team led from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, found evidence of microbes that have adapted to the extreme conditions. These hardy organisms are of interest because they may serve as a template for how life could survive on Mars. "All the stresses you have in the Atacama, you have on Mars, too - just a little tick more," TU Berlin's Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch told BBC News. So, as well as super-aridity that means even higher levels of ultraviolet radiation and soils that are loaded with salts. Dr Schulze-Makuch's team sampled a range of sites in the South American desert - from t...