Martian Transgressions

**ShadowDragon** · 08-22-2019 10:45

Supposedly - according to HG Wells - the Martians having eliminated bacteria, etc. on Mars forgot all about these until their invasion force was wiped out by earth-evolved bacteria.

The Martians succumbing to earth-evolved bacteria is highly unlikely - perhaps nearly impossible. HG Wells took this notion from the devastation of the aboriginal groups in the Americas and the Antipodes. However, he got it wrong. Those people share the same biology as the citizens of Eurasian and Africa they just didn't have an immune system (antibodies) that would have allowed them to resist the disease brought by the Europeans.

The Martians are from a different planet. They are unlikely the have a biology in common with any earth species never mind humans. There would be no bacteria or virus strain that would be able to infect the Martians as none had evolved to exploit Martian biology. Perhaps in time. Bacteria and viruses can jump related species but its not that common and even more unlikely with species significantly unrelated (e.g., we don't catch diseases from trees...although we may be allergic to trees that's different). The Martian biology would be altogether different - unless you assume that in some far distant past they had a common ancestor with earth species.

Sorry HG Wells, you got it wrong. While it fits the moral of your story very nicely, the Martians don't die from earth bacteria....at least not without some missing link that connects the Martians to the Earth.

All of which means we MUST fight them with our wee airplanes.

**Baxter** · 08-22-2019 17:20

What!!! We have to wee on them from our airplanes?

**milcoll73** · 08-22-2019 19:14

well, knowing about archebacteria, and the hardiness, and adaptability of viruses, i have no doubt that an entity similar enough to exist in our biosphere would eventually succumb to one or more of the myriad of cavorting beasties inhabiting our world. it might not be as swift as the timeline in wells book, but i think it would assuredly happen eventually.

**ShadowDragon** · 08-23-2019 09:34

Originally Posted by milcoll73

well, knowing about archebacteria, and the hardiness, and adaptability of viruses, i have no doubt that an entity similar enough to exist in our biosphere would eventually succumb to one or more of the myriad of cavorting beasties inhabiting our world. it might not be as swift as the timeline in wells book, but i think it would assuredly happen eventually.

Relying on a evolutionary adaptation to counter an invasion is a strategy; if only evolutionary time was on the same scale as invasion time. There is not doubt that, but from an evolutionary strategy killing off your hosts quickly is a poor one. In many cases extremely virulent disease outbreaks occur when a disease that's come to some kind of balance with existing host species manages to 'find' a new host species similar enough to the existing hosts but without defence mechanisms. Ultimately not good for either the new hosts or the pathogen - in terms of evolution and the species.

Archaea are interesting for two reasons (many reasons actually) - (1) that we couldn't live without them inside us and (2) we can't seem to find an example of one that is a pathogen or parasite. Although it's still early innings in terms of research, it surprising that after billions of years of evolution that there aren't obvious cases. One hypothesis is that archaea emerged in extreme environments unlike humans and bacteria and that early co-existence of humans and bacteria may be why some bacteria are pathogens. Curious though and depending on how the research goes that our assumption of "succumbing would assuredly happen eventually" might not necessarily be true.

Even the pathogenic nature of bacteria can be interesting in that some species can peacefully co-exist with humans but can occasionally because a virulent disease. The hypothesis is that a virus (bacteriophage) attacks the bacteria which causes it to become a pathogen.

Still it's rare to see viral or bacterial pathogens successfully transfer from one species to a significantly different species. Hoof and mouth disease is one example of a virus that can humans only rarely contract the disease but it's nothing like how severe and contagious it is among cattle.

However, one can't fault HG Wells for not knowing the state of research a century later. Besides the story as is fits with his desire to provide a commentary on contemporary late 19th century Britain.