![Pixabay license https://pixabay.com/service/license/ photo of person washing hands at a sink with a bar of soap](https://blog.emergingscholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/54e6d6424d55ab14ea898675c6203f78083edbe25256784f71277b_640_wash-hands-e1571796969870-420x220.jpg)
As I wrangle more conversations into a shareable format for our sci-fi film festival (thanks for your patience), let’s return to a sci-fi topic encroaching on our reality: extraterrestrial life. Many of us have space travel on the mind, especially this week as we celebrate the first all-female space walk. (I suppose once upon a time that might have seemed purely sci-fi itself.) We have plans to return humans to the Moon, and a vision to set foot on Mars as well. Yet we need to be wary of stowaways, particularly bacteria and other microbes. They get everywhere and can be quite challenging to get rid of. Nevertheless, if we want any future claims about life on Mars to be taken seriously, we need to make sure it was there before us.
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