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> The major categories of visible life on Earth have been pretty much settled for centuries. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that scientists found “intraterrestri
by mmooss 2y ago
> The major categories of visible life on Earth have been pretty much settled for centuries. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that scientists found “intraterrestrials” — microscopic organisms living in what the biogeochemist David Valentine calls a “microbial purgatory deep below the Earth’s surface."
Does anyone know the paper(s) from the 1980s where the discovery was published?
- wiml 2y agoHere's a survey article from the late 80s which should have a rich references section for you: Ghiorse & Wilson, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2164(08)70206-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2164(08)70206-5 I think there are two strands: petroleum companies have long been interested in any connection between deep biology and oil; and I think around that time people found microbes in a few sterile-seeming aquifers.
- mmooss 2y agoThanks!