NASA goes to Santorini

Students of the island of Santorini took part in an experiment, which can make the Red Planet inhabitable. There is an element that abounds on the island and which is much desired by NASA and by the scientists looking for the beginning of life on Earth. What is this element? The answer is a bacterium, but not any bacterium. This bacterium makes dark the waters of the island, metabolizing the iron that exists in the volcanic rocks of Santorini. For this reason, these bacteria are called iron-bacteria. Counting on the fact that planet Mars has vast quantities of iron (this is why it is red), the scientists estimate that those iron-bacteria could live on this planet! A manned mission to Mars has been scheduled by NASA for 2010. Among the experiments that will take place there, the study of the possible survival of those bacteria is also included.