Slashdot desperately needs a James Traficant crapflooder. In my opinion, Mr. Traficant is one of the few normal human beings in Congress.

Keep up the good work.

It's a God awful small affair for her. The life on Mars issue doesn't just impact in the Scientific field - it affects all of us, the entirety of humanity.

If we find life on Mars, we will never be able to colonise it. Expanding the human experience beyond the shores, the gravity well of this puny Earth requires a virgin territory. But if Mars is soiled with life, we cannot infect it with out own, for that would be interstellar ecocide.

The children are crying, they wail because with every piece of evidence that Mars has life, the long term survival of the Human race gets that bit slimmer. We need room to grow. We need to move off this poisoned planet. But the one save heavenly haven that awaits us is already taken.

Whatever can we do now? What happens when the light goes out?