Martian Soil Is Deadly. And That's Why It Might Support Life.

*FLASH SALE* Get a limited-time 50% discount on an annual subscription to The Economist at https://www.economist.com/PBS. Sale ends on March 25th, 2026. Discount will return to 35% post sale. The tardigrade—capable of surviving extreme drying, freezing, heat, radiation, the vacuum of space, maybe even the asteroid impact. Who knows, maybe some have hitchhiked on impact ejecta to Mars. And according to a new study, the tardigrade can survive most of the ravages of the Martian surface. Most. When the researchers added a chemical that’s both abundant on Mars and horrifically toxic, even the tardi