So much for those space potatoes. SIGNE DEAN 7 JUL 2017 A new study has revealed that compounds present in the Martian soil can wipe out whole bacterial cultures within minutes. Researchers have had their suspicions over whether microorganisms can actually survive on the surface of the Red Planet, and now lab tests are spelling doom for any potential little green bacteria. And yeah, growing potatoes on Mars might be more difficult than we thought. The problem here lies with perchlorates - chlorine-containing chemical compounds that we first detected on Mars back in 2008. These salty compounds are also what makes water on the Martian surface stay liquid, essentially turning it into brine. Perchlorates are considered toxic for people, but they don't necessarily pose a problem for microbes. And because they keep surface water liquid, on Mars the presence of these compounds could even be beneficial for life - or so we thought. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh