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Lichens can survive almost anything, and some might survive Mars

Lichens can survive almost anything, and some might survive Mars

5 comments

·April 19, 2025
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NoTeslaThrow

Not mentioning Kim Stanley Robinson's The Mars Trilogy is insane. Almost "didn't bother to google the topic" insane. Screw the article; it's a worthless wrapper around a single quote by one of the authors of the actual paper[0], which is also far less stimulating than KSR (although I'm sure very validating to us KSR-heads!). just go find some of the best hard sci fi you'll ever find (and hundreds of pages loving devoted to lichen and escarpments) at your local library.

And unlike most hard sci fi: it's optimistic, the characters are vivid and memorable well after you stop reading, and i've never read anything else like it. Except maybe Ursula K Le Guin's The Disposessed (and she was his mentor).

[0]: https://imafungus.pensoft.net/article/145477/

Edit: no disrespect intended to the author, who was likely unaware of such an amazing trilogy. I am just very excited about lichen on mars. Far, far, far more excited than I am about humans on it.

elevatedastalt

I read that as Lichess and was equally inclined to agree :-)

morkalork

It would be awkward if a contaminated probe brought lichens to Mars and it slowly turned blueish-green before our eyes.

djaouen

Unlike humans. Lol

contingencies

Mars: I'm lichen it.