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Wasn't it just a few years ago they found microbes underwater where there wasn't any sunlight? The thinking back then was that all life was directly or indirect

Wasn't it just a few years ago they found microbes underwater where there wasn't any sunlight? The thinking back then was that all life was directly or indirectly dependent on sunlight. I believe they even found life in some kind of acid. The extremes where we thought life was impossible, we eventually found life.

_Microft 6y ago
If you are interested in this, you might want to start looking here [0]. The general term for lifeforms in such extreme environments is "extremophiles". The different classes of extremes have own names though, for example "Acidophiles" for life in acidic environments. There is a list of them in the article. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > The different classes of extremes have own names though, for example "Acidophiles" for life in acidic environments. This bothered me, since "acidophile" is transparently a hybrid compound with one Latin and one Greek root. So I looked up what the Greek root for acid would be. Turns out it's oxy-, and oxygen was erroneously named for its essential (and completely fictional) role in the formation of acids. Acidophiles should properly be termed oxyphiles... except that everyone would get the wrong idea. This fails to explain how acidophilus bacteria got their name, though.
ricree 6y ago
>Wasn't it just a few years ago they found microbes underwater where there wasn't any sunlight? It sounds like you're talking about the life around hydrothermal vents[0], which ultimately depends on chemosynthesis[1]rather than photosynthesis. This has been known since the late 70s, and actually fuels significant macroscopic life[2], not just microorganisms. There's also deepwater life surviving off of things like marine snow[3], which is nutrient carrying detrius from the surface, or whale falls. But both of those ultimately depend on photosynthesis that happens near the surface. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent#Biology_of_hydrothermal_vents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent#Biology_of_h... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosynthesis [2]See giant tube worm, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riftia_pachyptila https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riftia_pachyptila [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_snow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_snow

_Microft 6y ago

If you are interested in this, you might want to start looking here [0]. The general term for lifeforms in such extreme environments is "extremophiles". The different classes of extremes have own names though, for example "Acidophiles" for life in acidic environments. There is a list of them in the article. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> The different classes of extremes have own names though, for example "Acidophiles" for life in acidic environments. This bothered me, since "acidophile" is transparently a hybrid compound with one Latin and one Greek root. So I looked up what the Greek root for acid would be. Turns out it's oxy-, and oxygen was erroneously named for its essential (and completely fictional) role in the formation of acids. Acidophiles should properly be termed oxyphiles... except that everyone would get the wrong idea. This fails to explain how acidophilus bacteria got their name, though.

ricree 6y ago

>Wasn't it just a few years ago they found microbes underwater where there wasn't any sunlight? It sounds like you're talking about the life around hydrothermal vents[0], which ultimately depends on chemosynthesis[1]rather than photosynthesis. This has been known since the late 70s, and actually fuels significant macroscopic life[2], not just microorganisms. There's also deepwater life surviving off of things like marine snow[3], which is nutrient carrying detrius from the surface, or whale falls. But both of those ultimately depend on photosynthesis that happens near the surface. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent#Biology_of_hydrothermal_vents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent#Biology_of_h... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosynthesis [2]See giant tube worm, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riftia_pachyptila https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riftia_pachyptila [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_snow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_snow