The Associated Press reports that two NASA Viking space probes visiting Mars in 1976-77 may have come across alien microbes and killed them by drowning and overheating them, according to a paper released at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. It was accidental, since the probes were looking for Earth-like life, not the hydrogen peroxide-based life that could have evolved on Mars in the Red Planet’s cold, dry conditions. A NASA official told AP the agency is revising its definition of “life.”
Airmen and Guardians in the Active and Reserve component, as well as civilian employees, in “mission critical and high-risk populations” are now required to receive influenza vaccinations annually to “preserve force readiness,” according to a recent Department of the Air Force memo.