This was covered before:

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/10/02/191229.shtml

http://web.archive.org/web/20001019060307/...e.com/dailyglobe2/2 75/nation/Astronauts_vs_fungus+.shtml

[scads of biologists preserving it]

they couldn't have been smuggled back to earth for use as a secret weapon, couldn't they? couldn't they!?

It's all very very simple...... Lysol instead of Tang.

This doesn't sound real. I can believe bacterial waste products are caustic enough to eat through metal and scar crystal, but a one-meter long yellow worm hanging out in a control panel? Come on. Do you know how many calories a day a one-meter long worm would need to sustain itself? Even if it licked this alleged bacterial film all day long, it couldn't keep up.
Also, the article alleging that the commentators from esteemed academic institutes interpret earth-native heat-resistent bacteria living in volcanic springs as evidence that such organisms might survive a trip through the earth's atmosphere brings into question the existence or credibility of these supposed scientists. Those bacteria in the volcanic springs did not get resistance all at once from sudden exposure to heat.

And the final kicker.... if such wondrous evolutionary systems developed so rapidly due to mutation caused by cosmic radiation, there would be scads of biologists preserving it and having cat fights over who gets the rights to study it.

molecular acid :) i hope none of those guys reached earth!

One of Sterling books -- Schismatrix -- is partially set in a space colony whose ecosystem is shot to hell. Fungus and rot everywhere. I think he intended it as a rude in-yer-face comment on the unrealistically tidy, utopian space colonies that where all over SF in the 70s. Interesting that an actual space outpost would suffer a similar fate!

Igor also wrote a weird article on russian neo-pagan extremists that's worth checking out -
http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/148_newbarbarians.shtml