In hyperarid environments, life can obtain water through salts that draw moisture from the atmosphere. These salts, then, should be a focus of searches for life on Mars.
The experiments performed by NASA's Viking landers may have accidentally killed Martian life by applying too much water, which undermines the long-held belief that life needs liquid water.
If these inferences about organisms surviving in hyperarid Martian conditions are correct, then rather than 'follow the water,' we should follow hydrated and hygroscopic compounds - salts - to locate microbial life.
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