Hi MannGoogled Perchlorates / color. ...

Hi Mann

Googled Perchlorates / color. Lots of interesting stuff came up.

Perchlorates are dessicants and are used as such in inkjet colours. Imagine what such dessicants can do on Mars if they can "fix" the sparse water available into a form which can be utilized by microbes in their metabolic reactions. perchlorates also seem to have some effect on siderophore (chelation ) effects re. the reduction of iron compounds and the uptake of iron in a number of microbes on earth.

I can now see slightly more clearly, how perchlorates could well be important constituents of martian soils and be intimately involved in the metabolism of putative microbes. Again, the perchlorates themselves do not appear to be inherently toxic, although some of their breakdown products might be.

I think you are on a very interesting path.

Winston