Life on Mars: Aberdeen University research just might help save humanity from dinosaurs' fate – Scotsman comment

If only Tyrannosaurus rex had been blessed with opposable thumbs and an array of other human advantages, they might have avoided extinction

Given the various threats to life on Earth – from Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling and climate change to the remote chance of a direct hit by a giant meteor – it might be a good idea to start lining up a ‘Planet B’. Life on Mars would undoubtedly be tough and probably rather dangerous for the early colonists, assuming they survived the long journey to get there. As the occasional explosions demonstrate, we have not yet truly mastered the art of space flight.

However, any species with two planets to call home would be substantially safer from a mass extinction event like the one which did for the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. If only Tyrannosaurus rex had been blessed with opposable thumbs, more brain power than a monkey and generations of scientific progress, they too might have been able to escape their fate.

So research at Aberdeen University into the habitability of Mars, which will see a high-tech piece of kit called HABIT sent to the Red Planet to monitor the conditions, just might, one day, help save humanity from disaster.

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