Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Life Confirmed At Extreme Depths

Posted by timothy on from the you'll-need-a-serious-deodorant dept.

SEWilco writes "A few years ago the life forms around deep-ocean thermal vents were a surprise. Now ancient bacteria alive in rock 2 miles down have been found. The story is in the San Francisco Chronicle. It is also at Nature.Com, but that server is already rejecting connects. Other bacteria survived frozen in the pressures of an ocean 100 miles deep. This increases the known limits of where life can exist on any planet. Thomas Gold undoubtedly is not surprised at hot, deep bacteria living on hydrogen."

5 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by mschoolbus · · Score: 0, Redundant

    But honestly... Why does anyone really care?

  2. I thought this... by craenor · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Was talking about life being found at /.

    Then I realized they weren't talking about depths of depravity...oh well.

  3. extraterrestrial life by caffeine_monkey · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What's really important about this discover is that it extends the boundaries in which we know life can exist, not just on Earth, but throughout the universe. If a microbe can live in boiling hot temperatures in complete darkness with nothing to eat but sulphur, then all of a sudden life on Mars or Europa seems all the more plausible.

  4. Re:IN SOIVET RUSIA by ekrout · · Score: 2, Redundant

    In Soviet Russia, funny fifteen years ago stopped being this joke!!!

    --

    If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
  5. Probably contamination by Idou · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is probably a result of contamination occurring within the experiment . . . I mean bacteria are everywhere and very resilent, resistent to heat, various poisons, and can even survive 2 miles under the ground . . . oh, wait.

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!