There is a lot that can be learned from pond scum. There is a study going on in the Pine Barrens that could one day help people live on Mars.

Stockton University students have been working at a site in Harrisville. The site was once an iron furnace in the Revolutionary War. They made cannonballs there.

There's a lot of iron in the soil, so they're studying the groundwater, pond scum and the bacteria that are growing because of that iron.

How does this relate to Mars? Mars is an iron-rich environment. If it grows on Earth, it may grow there.