Are we all Martians? A controversial hypothesis contends that life on our planet had to get its start somewhere else — most likely on Mars — because the chemistry on early Earth couldn’t have provided the required molecular machinery.
“The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock,” Steven Benner, a chemist at the Florida-based Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, said in a news release. What’s more, recent studies suggest that the conditions suitable for the origin of life “may still exist on Mars,” he said.