Aliens are fictional beings that are thought to live in other planets like earth. But they might be there for real. This era of space exploration brings with new risk: invasion. The danger of invasion of earth from aliens do not come from little green men arriving on flying saucers but the threat comes from microbiological contamination of Earth from extraterrestrial environments. Anthony Ricciardi of McGill University and colleagues describe dangers posed by such organism and outline approach to address the threat.
The authors warn that if biological contamination happens it will affect both human beings and ecosystem. Threat may be more immediate than previously anticipated. “ Research in invasion science produced novel insights for epidemiology, rapid evolution and relationship between bio diversity and community stability and dynamics of predator-prey and parasite and interactions among many other concepts,” says Ricciradi and colleagues. They say that protocols currently employed for invasive species could happen dealing with potential extraterrestrial contaminants.
Invasion from extraterrestrial might affect islands, lakes, remote habitat. Invasion biology has delivered insights about difficulty of invasion forecasting and crucial importance of early detection on managing microbial threats. DNA sequencing technologies, coupled with data bases of known organismal contaminants could enable rapid responses.
Despite their value for space biosecurity authors state the invasion biologists have yet to be involved in Committee on Space Research planning. This should be changes because “greater collaboration between invasion biologists and astrobiologists would enhance existing international protocols for planetary biosecurity and it should be done both for Earth and extraterrestrial bodies that could contain life.
