Scientist today are still not sure if any virus is actually alive.  Bacteria, yes, and so too humans.  All living forms are mostly water, from 60% in us to more than 90% in some plants. You might have thought that life needs oxygen, and most of us on Earth do.  However,  some bacteria, such as  E. coli , can survive on pure hydrogen .  This is crucial, for there is only 0.1% oxygen in the universe, but 92% hydrogen.  Thriving life has been found at a  temperature above the boiling point of water . In 1877  Giovanni Schiaperelli  of Italy mapped Mars, showing oceans and canals.  Somehow this nomenclature was mistakenly interpreted by some as evidence of life.   Percival Lowell  of the U.S. in 1894, from observation he made, suggested that those canals were created by intelligent Martians to move water from ice caps.  H.G. Wells in 1898 then published  War of the Worlds ,  launching a new genre of science fiction.  Then along came  Orson Welles  with his radio adaption in 1938 that panic