Someone at NASA has the coolest job title ever - 'Planetary Protection Officer'. While this conjures up (for me at least) images of a rather dour-faced military type overseeing vast batteries of lasers designed to shoot holes in interstellar warships bent on dominating the Earth, the job is actually making sure our planetary landers don't contaminate other celestial bodies with Terran microbes and, conversely, that any microscopic life brought back to Earth doesn't get out of control and start melting our eyeballs.
The position is currently held by an astrobiologist called Lisa Pratt, who reminds me of my Aunt Nola.
Boru
The position is currently held by an astrobiologist called Lisa Pratt, who reminds me of my Aunt Nola.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
