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Next pandemic 'worse than Covid' will arrive within years - and it will come from MARS
Next pandemic 'worse than Covid' will arrive within years - and it will come from MARS

Daily Mirror

timea day ago

  • Science
  • Daily Mirror

Next pandemic 'worse than Covid' will arrive within years - and it will come from MARS

Astrobiologist Barry DiGregorio fears astronauts on Mars could die "live on air" after being exposed to deadly alien pathogens as NASA aims to send people to the Red Planet in the 2030s Mars samples returned to Earth by NASA could spark a pandemic worse than Covid-19 in as little as 10 years, a scientist has warned. ‌ Astrobiologist Barry DiGregorio, 71, even fears astronauts on Mars will die "live on air" over deadly alien pathogens. NASA says on its website it hopes to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. It was planning to return samples before then through its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, but that was cancelled by Donald Trump's recent cuts. Instead NASA says it expects to return samples to Earth through lower-cost missions, without yet confirming how. ‌ And DiGregorio, an honorary research fellow at Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, fears samples returned will be riddled with disease. He also claims aliens were already found by the Viking Mars lander mission in 1976. ‌ The author of Discovery on Vera Rubin Ridge, Trace Fossils on Mars said: "I believe samples from Mars could lead to a pandemic because Gilbert Levin discovered life on Mars during the Viking missions. The environmental conditions of Mars are so vastly different than here on Earth that any life that adapted to those conditions could be completely different to anything that we understand. "Levin felt the same way. He was always opposed to bringing samples home before we studied what the life that he found on Mars is. Lately they've been finding examples of extremophiles in areas where they put spacecraft before they're sent to the planets, and they've discovered a whole new line of extremophiles here on Earth that they never knew existed before. Therefore we have been sending all our rovers and landers to Mars without a complete sterilisation. ‌ "We were sending to Mars from Earth the type of extremophiles that can survive in very hardy places. So we're not only contaminating Mars, but with the Mars sample return situation, we could be doing the exact same thing by bringing stuff back from Mars." He added: "It is possible that NASA hasn't really thought through the idea that these astronauts, presumably, will be televised. Something really bad could go wrong live on air. I don't think there's any question about it. If one astronaut steps out to plant the flag on Mars and goes back in for the night to catch some rest, and in the morning comes down with symptoms of some new disease, what are you going to do? ‌ "They have to wait a year or more to come back to Earth and there's no rescue mission that can be sent there. So the smart thing to do is to send more life detection rovers. You want astronauts to be safe if they go exploring Mars. You don't want to send them to become human petri dishes." Levin made the explosive claim he'd discovered microbial alien life on Mars during the 1976 missions. He had been contracted to run tests on Martian soil but his theory was dismissed by NASA. He spent the rest of his life adamant he was the first man to discover aliens, before he died at the age of 97 in 2021. After NASA had landed two Viking landers on Mars, Levin claimed he'd found the presence of radioactive gas that showed signs of alien life. ‌ But NASA determined this was not the case in a separate experiment from Viking. Recently, former NASA Planetary Protection Officer, Catharine Conley, claims she was fired because she said plans to return Mars samples to Earth were not safe. She told The Sun: "The Mars 2020 rover was cleaned in a way that was not compatible with prior levels of cleanliness, in particular regarding the amount of contamination that was getting introduced into the samples that were being collected for return. ‌ "I pointed out that having a 0.1 per cent chance of contaminating any individual sample, when you have 40 samples in total, comes out to a 4 per cent chance of having Earth contamination in the samples you're looking at. That makes it fairly difficult to be confident that you can distinguish between Earth life and Mars life. "That was not something that the people at the headquarters management wanted to hear and they took the steps that they thought were appropriate." DiGregorio added: "We need life detection to find current life that exists there now. Tests like those that Gilbert Levin used to detect metabolism on Mars, a very accurate method for detecting microorganisms. There have been many opportunities to go back to check this out for astronaut safety." ‌ He added: "Microbes attach themselves to dust particles. Mars is a very dry and dusty place and one of the problems the Apollo missions had was when the astronauts returned from their EVAs, they brought lots and lots of dust on their suits inside the compartment with them. "When they took them off, the dust was getting everywhere. In fact they could smell it. It smelled like burnt gunpowder, they said. "If you remember the Apollo mission planetary protection protocols, we weren't really sure if there were microbes on the Moon, and to prevent cross contamination, the astronauts had to wear isolation gowns, put them on inside the capsule as it was bobbing up and down in the ocean and a recovery crew came to pick them and take them up in a helicopter. "It took them to the aircraft carrier where a makeshift trailer designed to be an isolation booth housed the astronauts for a period of a couple weeks while scientists back on Earth were looking for samples in the lunar dust that might have been contaminated. "The thing that was really odd was as soon as they opened the capsule door to the sea, lunar dust particles that were in the capsule could have been swept out and into the ocean. So if there was any kind of extremophile microorganisms on the Moon that could survive in the Earth Sea, we just contaminated the planet right then and there. We're basically gambling with whatever is out there."

Marae opens doors to stranded drivers after crash blocked SH1 at Manakau
Marae opens doors to stranded drivers after crash blocked SH1 at Manakau

RNZ News

timea day ago

  • Automotive
  • RNZ News

Marae opens doors to stranded drivers after crash blocked SH1 at Manakau

NZ Transport Agency says State Highway 1 between Ōtaki and Levin has reopened after a serious crash but drivers can expect ongoing delays. Drivers who are waiting for the road to open have been offered a cuppa at Tukorehe Marae. Photo: Supplied / Tūkorehe Marae Earlier, a marae near the scene of crash opened its doors to stuck drivers. At about 2.30pm, NZTA said northbound queues were back to Ōtaki, and southbound queues were back to Kimberley Road. Emergency services were called to the two-vehicle crash near Manakau around 10.20am between Whakahoro and Kuku East Roads, and remain on site. Earlier police said Te Iwi o Ngāti Tukorehe Marae just north of Manakau opened its doors to drivers waiting for the road to open and was providing cups of tea. When the highway was still closed, a worker at a nearby business said traffic in the southbound lane was at a standstill. "It's very quiet and the traffic has just stopped. You can hear people's voices rather than the drone of the traffic. "There's a line of traffic - trucks, cars - nothing travelling north." They thought it was "fabulous" that the nearby marae had opened its doors to waiting drivers. Earlier this month, members of the Horowhenua-based iwi Ngāti Tukorehe said they would fly their flags even higher along State Highway 1 after what they said was a "racist" attack after several of the Tino Rangatira flags were ripped down. A social media post on Tuesday said marae members were "offering manaaki in the form of water and access to whare paku to those stuck in traffic". "Know us before you judge us. Caring for others is in our blood," it said. Police urged drivers travelling through the area to be patient and drive carefully. Flags outside Tukorehe Marae. Photo: Supplied / Tipi Wehipeihana Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Watch live: Govt says billions being spent on infrastrastructure will create thouisands of jobs
Watch live: Govt says billions being spent on infrastrastructure will create thouisands of jobs

RNZ News

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • RNZ News

Watch live: Govt says billions being spent on infrastrastructure will create thouisands of jobs

The government on Sunday morning has released an infrastructure update showing $6 billion of government-funded construction is due to start between now and Christmas. Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis and Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop said in a media release the projects would drive economic activity and create thousands of jobs across the country. "The projects getting underway include new roads, hospitals, schools, high-tech laboratories and other government buildings," Willis said. "That means spades in the ground, jobs throughout the country and a stronger economy. Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii "Improving the quality of New Zealand's infrastructure is critical to growing the economy and helping Kiwis with the cost of living. "Good roads, schools and hospitals help business to move goods and services to market quickly and efficiently, children to learn and doctors and nurses to get patients back on their feet." The projects getting underway would create thousands of employment opportunities for New Zealanders, Bishop said. "Numbers vary according to the nature of projects, but data sourced from the Infrastructure Commission suggests each billion dollars of infrastructure investment per year equates to about 4500 jobs. "In total, workers are expected to start construction on $3.9 billion worth of roading projects in the next few months. They include the Ōtaki to north of Levin expressway, the Melling interchange, the Waihoehoe Road upgrade, and the new Ōmanawa bridge on SH29. All will help to lift productivity by getting people and freight to their destinations quickly and safely. "Health projects kicking off include upgrades to Auckland City Hospital, Middlemore Hospital, and the construction of a new acute mental health unit at Hutt Valley Hospital. Construction work on the new inpatients building at the new Dunedin Hospital has also just begun." Projects focused on improving school properties nearly $800 million in value would also be underway before the end of the year, he said. Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins "Other government infrastructure projects due to start before the end of this year include a massive new state-of-the-art biosecurity facility in Auckland for the Ministry of Primary Industries and the Papakura District Court interim courthouse. "Importantly, this is just the start. The National Infrastructure Pipeline, managed by the Infrastructure Commission, now shows planned future projects totalling $207 billion across central government, local government and the private sector." Alongside the infrastructure update, Nicola Willis today released an update on the government's Infrastructure for Growth work programme. The update is the first refresh of the Going for Growth agenda launched in February to drive economic growth by backing business, improving infrastructure and skills, and removing barriers to innovation. The projects beginning construction include: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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