8 ms·

Meet the Endoterrestrials

70 points by Thorondor 8y ago

vanderZwan 8y ago
> Templeton is one of a growing number of scientists who believe that the Earth’s deep subsurface is brimming with life. By some estimates, this unexplored biosphere may contain anywhere from a tenth to one-half of all living matter on Earth. I know the emphasis should be "some", but even then this is a lot of biomatter. How do they come to that number?
- Tepix 8y ago
  There's a lot of space down there. From what we learn about life is that it will fill every available niche.
- Sharlin 8y ago
  Volume vs. surface area. The life more familiar to us is concentrated to what amounts to a 2D surface. Oceans are mostly devoid of life excluding surface waters where sunlight is available and seabed ecosystems.
- gilleain 8y ago
  One of the first people to consider this was Thomas Gold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold), for example http://www.pnas.org/content/89/13/6045 http://www.pnas.org/content/89/13/6045. There's a nice review here (http://www.pnas.org/content/114/27/6895 http://www.pnas.org/content/114/27/6895) but it doesn't have much detail.
jnty 8y ago
> “This is beautiful rock,” said Templeton, running a latex-gloved finger over its surface. Her sunglasses were pushed back over her straight brown hair, revealing cheekbones darkened from years of working outside on ships, on tropical islands, in the high Arctic, and everywhere else her work has taken her. What a bizarre section. Would the author ever write about a man like this?
- dEnigma 8y ago
  I don't see how that exact description couldn't be used when writing about a man. In fact I assumed it was a man at the start of the quote (haven't read the article yet).
  - jnty 8y ago
    I mean, yes, I guess it is entirely possible for male journalists use a science article to describe anyone's hair, cheekbones and face in a way that wouldn't sound out of place in a holiday novel. It's a possibility they seem to only explore for women though.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >I mean, yes, I guess it is entirely possible for male journalists use a science article to describe anyone's hair, cheekbones and face in a way that wouldn't sound out of place in a holiday novel It's not only "possible", it's very common. The snark is not warranted. Almost all e.g. Wired profile stories do the same thing, male or female -- they only fail to add something in those lines when the subject is already known (e.g. Musk or Torvalds, so nobody needs to know how they look). E.g.: JAMES ALLISON LOOKS like a cross between Jerry Garcia and Ben Franklin, and he’s a bit of both, an iconoclastic scientist and musician known for good times and great achievements. He also doesn’t always answer his phone, especially when the call arrives at 5 am, from an unfamiliar number. https://www.wired.com/story/meet-jim-allison-the-texan-who-just-won-a-nobel-cancer-breakthrough/ https://www.wired.com/story/meet-jim-allison-the-texan-who-j...
- srl 8y ago
  > Would the author ever write about a man like this? I tried to check. On theatlantic (okay, I'm too lazy to search harder) there are two other articles by the same author; one is from 2014 (and has no women as major characters), and the other is from earlier this year (and has a woman as the main scientist). I didn't find any physical description of the people in either story. So... not enough evidence to really establish a clear pattern on this person. Still, even without data, I've a strong suspicion (just from experience) this sort of text is more common when writing about women, and I agree it's bizarre.
Latteland 8y ago
This long article finally gets to a useful point and explains how there could be life on the bodies in the Solar System. Microbes eating hydrogen could actually be viable on Mars and other places, just like they do "down in the crust" on Earth. There's actually no reason it couldn't work on many places.

70 points by Thorondor 8y ago

> Templeton is one of a growing number of scientists who believe that the Earth’s deep subsurface is brimming with life. By some estimates, this unexplored biosphere may contain anywhere from a tenth to one-half of all living matter on Earth. I know the emphasis should be "some", but even then this is a lot of biomatter. How do they come to that number?

Tepix 8y ago
There's a lot of space down there. From what we learn about life is that it will fill every available niche.
Sharlin 8y ago
Volume vs. surface area. The life more familiar to us is concentrated to what amounts to a 2D surface. Oceans are mostly devoid of life excluding surface waters where sunlight is available and seabed ecosystems.
gilleain 8y ago
One of the first people to consider this was Thomas Gold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold), for example http://www.pnas.org/content/89/13/6045 http://www.pnas.org/content/89/13/6045. There's a nice review here (http://www.pnas.org/content/114/27/6895 http://www.pnas.org/content/114/27/6895) but it doesn't have much detail.

jnty 8y ago

> “This is beautiful rock,” said Templeton, running a latex-gloved finger over its surface. Her sunglasses were pushed back over her straight brown hair, revealing cheekbones darkened from years of working outside on ships, on tropical islands, in the high Arctic, and everywhere else her work has taken her. What a bizarre section. Would the author ever write about a man like this?

dEnigma 8y ago
I don't see how that exact description couldn't be used when writing about a man. In fact I assumed it was a man at the start of the quote (haven't read the article yet).
- jnty 8y ago
  I mean, yes, I guess it is entirely possible for male journalists use a science article to describe anyone's hair, cheekbones and face in a way that wouldn't sound out of place in a holiday novel. It's a possibility they seem to only explore for women though.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >I mean, yes, I guess it is entirely possible for male journalists use a science article to describe anyone's hair, cheekbones and face in a way that wouldn't sound out of place in a holiday novel It's not only "possible", it's very common. The snark is not warranted. Almost all e.g. Wired profile stories do the same thing, male or female -- they only fail to add something in those lines when the subject is already known (e.g. Musk or Torvalds, so nobody needs to know how they look). E.g.: JAMES ALLISON LOOKS like a cross between Jerry Garcia and Ben Franklin, and he’s a bit of both, an iconoclastic scientist and musician known for good times and great achievements. He also doesn’t always answer his phone, especially when the call arrives at 5 am, from an unfamiliar number. https://www.wired.com/story/meet-jim-allison-the-texan-who-just-won-a-nobel-cancer-breakthrough/ https://www.wired.com/story/meet-jim-allison-the-texan-who-j...
srl 8y ago
> Would the author ever write about a man like this? I tried to check. On theatlantic (okay, I'm too lazy to search harder) there are two other articles by the same author; one is from 2014 (and has no women as major characters), and the other is from earlier this year (and has a woman as the main scientist). I didn't find any physical description of the people in either story. So... not enough evidence to really establish a clear pattern on this person. Still, even without data, I've a strong suspicion (just from experience) this sort of text is more common when writing about women, and I agree it's bizarre.

Latteland 8y ago

This long article finally gets to a useful point and explains how there could be life on the bodies in the Solar System. Microbes eating hydrogen could actually be viable on Mars and other places, just like they do "down in the crust" on Earth. There's actually no reason it couldn't work on many places.