4 ms·

It is such a pity that there is no adequate research budgets for extremophiles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremoph

by yannis 17y ago

It is such a pity that there is no adequate research budgets for extremophiles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile This reminded me of a friend of mine in South Africa who once showed me photos of living organisms that they collected from rocks almost 2km deep - that owed their existence to uranium. Does anyone have any co-ordinates for the glacier mentioned above?

eru 17y ago
> This reminded me of a friend of mine in South Africa who once showed me photos of living organisms that they collected from rocks almost 2km deep - that owed their existence to uranium. How? Did you they live off radiation?
- tkt 17y ago
  I don't know anything about these microbes in particular, but some bacteria can use metals, even uranium, as electron acceptors for growth. Two well-studied examples are Geobacter metallireducens and Shewanella oneidensis.
- yannis 17y ago
  You can find some info here http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/2900/life-is-lonely-at-the-center-of-the-earth http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/2900/life-is-lonely-at-... D. audaxviator survives in a habitat where it gets its energy not from the sun but from hydrogen and sulfate produced by the radioactive decay of uranium. A lot of research at the time my friend was working was not published as some of these organisms could produce gold as a metabolic product. True alchemists!
lssndrdn 17y ago
It should be in the vicinity of http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=-77.733333,162.166667&ie=UTF8&ll=-77.724262,162.28152&spn=0.002906,0.017595&z=16 http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=-77.733333,162.166667&...
Luc 17y ago
A good book on bacteria living deep underground is 'The Deep Hot Biosphere' by Thomas Gold: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosph... It's somewhat controversial, but it's a good read.

by yannis 17y ago

eru 17y ago

> This reminded me of a friend of mine in South Africa who once showed me photos of living organisms that they collected from rocks almost 2km deep - that owed their existence to uranium. How? Did you they live off radiation?

tkt 17y ago
I don't know anything about these microbes in particular, but some bacteria can use metals, even uranium, as electron acceptors for growth. Two well-studied examples are Geobacter metallireducens and Shewanella oneidensis.
yannis 17y ago
You can find some info here http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/2900/life-is-lonely-at-the-center-of-the-earth http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/2900/life-is-lonely-at-... D. audaxviator survives in a habitat where it gets its energy not from the sun but from hydrogen and sulfate produced by the radioactive decay of uranium. A lot of research at the time my friend was working was not published as some of these organisms could produce gold as a metabolic product. True alchemists!

lssndrdn 17y ago

It should be in the vicinity of http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=-77.733333,162.166667&ie=UTF8&ll=-77.724262,162.28152&spn=0.002906,0.017595&z=16 http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=-77.733333,162.166667&...

Luc 17y ago

A good book on bacteria living deep underground is 'The Deep Hot Biosphere' by Thomas Gold: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosph... It's somewhat controversial, but it's a good read.