--- title: Space: Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult description: The hardest part of searching for life on Mars, why this campaign isn't the end of party politics, antibiotic-allergy links, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-30T16:01:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:26.028Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 30, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 30, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**The hardest part of searching for life on Mars might be not killing it.**](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/searching-for-life-in-martian-water-will-be-very-very-tricky/) By Lee Billings in Scientific American **2\.** [**Despite what you’ve heard, this presidential campaign probably won’t be the end of party politics.**](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-29/don-t-bury-republican-and-democratic-parties-just-yet) By Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg View **3\.** [**Is there a link between overuse of antibiotics and rising allergies?**](https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-overuse-might-be-why-so-many-people-have-allergies-48078) By Avery August in the Conversation **4\.** [**Let’s tap the potential of the artisan economy — the fourth largest in the world.**](http://www.forbes.com/sites/willyfoote/2015/09/29/tapping-the-potential-of-the-worlds-fourth-largest-economy/) By Willy Foote in Forbes **5\.** [**We could reduce ocean acidification with nano-motors powered by the sea itself.**](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-09/23/micromotors-help-combat-carbon-dioxide-levels) By Ruby Lott-Lavigna in Wired.co.uk  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/"},"headline":"Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult","datePublished":"2015-09-30T16:01:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:26.028Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/","keywords":["Innovation","politics","Mars","Oceans","antibiotics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4055412/search-find-life-mars/","name":"Why Searching for Life on Mars Will Be Difficult"}}]}] ```