Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > rec.arts.sf.written > #454142 > unrolled thread

OT? Another Extremophile Found

Back to article view | Back to rec.arts.sf.written

Contents

  OT? Another Extremophile Found "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2016-10-16 16:56 -0700
    Re: OT? Another Extremophile Found Don Kuenz <g@crcomp.net> - 2016-10-17 13:49 +0000
    OT? Another Extremophile Found "artyw2@yahoo.com" <artyw2@yahoo.com> - 2016-10-17 09:57 -0700
      Re: OT? Another Extremophile Found "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2016-10-17 13:17 -0700
        Re: OT? Another Extremophile Found Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2016-10-17 13:40 -0700

#454142 — OT? Another Extremophile Found

  A previously unknown bacterium found deep in an African gold mine in 2008 was also found deep below Death Valley in 2012. It can't stand oxygen, thrives at 60 C and pH above 9, uses sulfate as its oxidizer of choice, and is the only organism found in its environment, meaning it makes everything it needs to live from water and rocks. The kicker is that the sulfate comes from hydrogen sulfide broken down by radiation from uranium in the rocks around it!

http://almlab.mit.edu/news.10102008.html

  It's named Desulforudis audaxviator, inspired by a line from Verne's _Journey To The Center Of The Earth_.

  Typical of what we can expect to find deep inside Mars and certain Saturnian and Jovian moons? Perhaps...


  Mark L. Fergerson

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#454215

nuny@bid.nes <Alien8752@gmail.com> wrote:
>  A previously unknown bacterium found deep in an African gold mine in
>  2008 was also found deep below Death Valley in 2012. It can't stand
>  oxygen, thrives at 60 C and pH above 9, uses sulfate as its oxidizer
>  of choice, and is the only organism found in its environment, meaning
>  it makes everything it needs to live from water and rocks. The kicker
>  is that the sulfate comes from hydrogen sulfide broken down by
>  radiation from uranium in the rocks around it!
>
> http://almlab.mit.edu/news.10102008.html
>
>  It's named Desulforudis audaxviator, inspired by a line from Verne's
>  _Journey To The Center Of The Earth_.
>
>  Typical of what we can expect to find deep inside Mars and certain
> Saturnian and Jovian moons? Perhaps...

That's a great name. And the Intelligent Design's not bad either. :0)
This thread's more on topic than most of them.

Thank you,

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

I study the lives on a leaf: the little
Sleepers, numb nudgers in cold dimensions,
Beetles in caves, nets, stone-deaf fishes,
Lice tethered to long limp subterranean weeds,
Squirmers in bogs,
And bacterial creepers.
  - Theodore Roethke

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#454233

It's amazing that it managed to end up in both of those places given that it can't handle oxygen and the thousands of miles between the places. Can it form spores? 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#454264

On Monday, October 17, 2016 at 9:57:18 AM UTC-7, art...@yahoo.com wrote:
> It's amazing that it managed to end up in both of those places given that it
> can't handle oxygen and the thousands of miles between the places. Can it form
> spores?

  Yes. It does that when conditions become inhospitable just like many other bacteria, but the group that found it in California says it's unlikely that it got there as spores recently (in geologic terms). They think it's just much more common (deep underground, anyway) than previously suspected, and that if we go looking for it we'll find it pretty much anywhere conditions favor it. That would imply that it's very old, old enough to have colonized the planet when Earth's surface biosphere was more to its liking, and that the current underground populations are stragglers hanging on as best they can.


  Mark L. Fergerson

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#454269

On Monday, October 17, 2016 at 4:17:13 PM UTC-4, nu...@bid.nes wrote:
> On Monday, October 17, 2016 at 9:57:18 AM UTC-7, art...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > It's amazing that it managed to end up in both of those places given that it
> > can't handle oxygen and the thousands of miles between the places. Can it form
> > spores?
> 
>   Yes. It does that when conditions become inhospitable just like many other bacteria, but the group that found it in California says it's unlikely that it got there as spores recently (in geologic terms). They think it's just much more common (deep underground, anyway) than previously suspected, and that if we go looking for it we'll find it pretty much anywhere conditions favor it. That would imply that it's very old, old enough to have colonized the planet when Earth's surface biosphere was more to its liking, and that the current underground populations are stragglers hanging on as best they can.

Bacteria have been around for roughly 4 billion years, and the continents have
been playing bumper cars the whole time, forming massive supercontinents at
least 3 times. Point being, these bacteria wouldn't have had to cross oceans. 

The atmosphere started to oxygenate about 2.5 billion years ago, so 
there's plenty of time for these anaerobes to migrate around the globe.

pt

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | rec.arts.sf.written

csiph-web