Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 121C Heat

shobadobs writes "A story in the Independent reports that a microorganism appropriately referred to as 'Strain 121' has been found capable of thriving, with its colony size doubling, at a heat of 121 degrees Celsius, eight degrees more than the previously recorded maximum temperature that an organism can survive. This deep-sea volcanic vent creature was found on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and it feeds off of iron." Luckily it's only a microorganism. At first glance I thought scientists might have discovered a real-life rust monster.

Comments

Depth vs. Temperature?

[Fesh]

I would guess that the only place these bugs could exist would be where the pressure is high enough to keep water liquid at a temperature that is 20 degrees C above boiling (at sea level)... Is the temperature a prerequisite for their metabolic processes?

What about hot bugs?

[tiled_rainbows]

I read about this in the paper on the way to work. And the article ended, yet again, saying "this is encouraging for people who still hope to find life on Mars". I understand that extremophile microbes demonstrate that our conception of a life-supporting environment has heretofore been a little narrow, but recent discoveries keep turning up organisms that live in hot, high-pressure envirtonments, kind of the exact opposite of the conditions on Mars. So how does this help the Martian life lobby? Given these recent findings, wouldn't we be better off looking for monocellular life somewhere like Venus, say?

Re:What about hot bugs?

[juhaz]

There are plenty of things that survice on temperatures below zero degrees celsius, even some bigger ones (like few fish). Nothing that is this far from the average, but then again conditions where you could find that kind of organisms on Earth are very rare, probably even more so than these deep-sea thermal vent critters.

And if they can survive in one extreme, it gives a reason to believe other is also possible. Though in reality temperature of Mars is closer to 121C than conditions on Venus - average Martian temperature is -63C, difference of ~200, average on Venus is 457C, difference of over three hundred degree celsius. Surface temperature of Venus is hotter than Mercury!

And even if there would be life on Venus, how the heck do you plan on finding it there? Ever present almost total cloud cover will make finding a landing place nigh impossible, and even if that could somehow be achieved no hardware of ours would survive the winds, somewhat corrosive atmosphere and infernal temperatures. In short, you can describe the place rather accurately with one word: Hell.

Only possible in the deep sea

[asciimonster]

Since this is, I presume, a water-based organism, it can only survive such high temperatures deep down in the ocean. At sealevel, the water inside the organism will boil and make the thing explode. Also I wonder how it can keep it's aminoacids and DNA intact. At 120 degrees C there is enough energy to break the Hydrogen bonds which give the proteines and DNA it's stability...

Could somebody give me some indications on the pressures sown there?

High-temperature life forms

[ajs318]

Now this is interesting! A life-form that can survive temperatures over 100 degrees can't be killed by boiling water. {Actually, water boils at less than 100C in most places on Earth since the atmosphere is less dense at altitude higher than sea level; therefore, with less pressure outside the liquid, the molecules don't have to have so much energy to break free from the surface tension prison}. Suddenly, heat is not the ultimate disinfectant you thought it was anymore.

Just wait till someone finds a living creature that can withstand several hundred degrees ..... it'd have a real chance of surviving a fire ..... now that would be scary.

Re:High-temperature life forms

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wait till someone finds a living creature that can withstand several hundred degrees ..... it'd have a real chance of surviving a fire ..... now that would be scary.

The Europeans used to buy asbestos from the Chinese, and for hundreds of years Europeans believed it came from the skin of an animal that lived in fire.

Re:Welcome

[Phroggy]

OK, so I'm a seasoned karma whore. Now, would someone kindly clue me in as to the origins of this? Is it a quote from a bad sci-fi movie or something? What exactly is the original quote? Could non-Slashdotters be expected to get this joke too, or would they be just as confused as they are about the IN SOVIET RUSSIA joke? Thanks! ;-)

Re:Luckily

[Captain Large Face]

Firstly, why the hell would be want to make this micro-organisms extinct? Secondly, if you take the micro-organism out of its environment, it will most likely perish anyway, so you needn't be worried about becoming enslaved to something you can't even see. :)

Iron Eating Bacteria

[BigBadBus]

Hi, Iron eating bugs/bacteria aren't exactly new. They can be found eating away the wreck of the Titanic for instance (where 20% of the ship's steel has been consumed)

How High?

[LordLucless]

If this little blighter is thriving at 121C, how high can it actually survive. The article mentions that temperatures in this guy's home top out at about 400C. How much heat can these guys actually take before cooking?

Of course....

[CowsAnonymous]

There is an animal that can probably live past all these creatures in extreme conditions, and that's the Waterbear

From this article... The waterbear can revert to an "instant coffee"-dry state which resists storage in liquid nitrogen, contact with mineral acids, organic solvents, radioactive radiation and boiling water. After this kind of brute "scientific" scrutiny the miraculous creature is still able to return to normal life--it needs only a small droplet of water!

Re:Of course....

[cruachan]

Not really. These black smoker type bacteria are way outside the normal confines of how 'life' handles extreme conditions using very unusual combinations of proteins and other biochemicals to survive. For example normal proteins are completely unstable in these types of conditions denaturing within seconds.

Waterbears and their like are impressive, but they're still operating with a more 'mainstream' set of building blocks and their natural limits, whilst impressive, are not quite in the same league.

Have a look at the ribosomal rna family trees to get some idea of how far these extremophiles are away from the rest of the life on the planet.

What comes out

[Quill_28]

Excuse my ignorance, but what comes out?

Basically what does it turn the iron into? FeO2

Just curious.

Lucky?

[RealSalmon]

Luckily it's only a microorganism.

Whew! It's only a microorganism . . . they're only responsible for more deaths than everything else on the planet combined.

Remember . . . it's usually the little stuff that gets you.

Re:Lucky?

[GeoGreg]

They are also probably responsible for more life on this planet than anything else combined. I've heard estimates that about 50% of Earth's biomass is made up of bacteria. And this article includes a couple of interesting statistics. It is estimated that there are 10^30 bacteria on Earth. However, it's also estimated that there are 10^31 (note that extra zero) bacteriophages (viruses that prey on bacteria). So, remember, your role in life is as a bacteria culturing medium. And the bacteria serve as munchies for the phages. I, for one, welcome our new viral overlords (sorry, couldn't resist).

genetic engineering here we come

[obstacleman]

Many years ago I read a short story about an army private that invents a device that can turn anything made of iron into a pile of rust. He wanted to end wars by disarming the world, but it could make an effective offensive weapon by destroying enemy guns, tanks, planes etc. Figure out the genetic code for iron eating and splice it into something that thrives at 1 atmosphere. Other specialized organisms could make for interesting anti-submarine warfare too. Great potential does not always equal great good. Ugh.

Well, that's undersea colonies up the creek then..

[Channard]

So basically if we ever knacker the planet to the extent that the only livable location is deep under the ocean, would we risk these little bugs eating away at our colonies? Looks like Seaquest DSV got it all wrong then.

Would it be possible for these bugs to spread out of the depths where they dwell to the point where any structure built on the ocean floor would be under threat? Eg, oil rigs now or colonies if we ever did indeed build things under the sea?

Mining bugs

[ChibiLZ]

Could these be put into a pressurized, heated slurry and pumped into the earth, then sucked back out after they stewed for a while? Could we use this as a method of mining iron from previously thought 'dead' mines? If these 'bugs' excrete FeO2 as a waste product, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to take that iron oxide and turn it back into iron.

It was really only one joke

[donscarletti]

I believe there was only one joke actually by Yakov Smirnoff, that was:

In America you can always find a party, in Soviet Russia party can always find you

an extremely witty joke by almost everyone's standards, making a great pun with the word "party" to create truly a beautiful and lasting joke.

The classic joke was later reused in the cartoon Family Guy as the Yakoff Smirnoff setting of the autodrive system. The voice made comments like "you are coming to a fork in road, in soviet russia, road fork you!" and "in soviet russia, car drive you" to succesfully create riotous amusement by the shear lameness of the repitition.

Unfortunantly lameness and repititon are also the chosen methods of expression on another media: the internet. This continuation of the running joke has made the memory of that great joke lost in a sea of "in soviet russia, opteron makes beowolf cluster out of you!" travesties.

But it seems in this corrupt world, anything innocent and beautiful will eventally be raped by those who have nothing to do but distroy purity.

that's 250F, correct?

[mraymer]

My math might be a little rusty... and NO I haven't read the article! I mean c'mon, this is Slashdot. Don't be silly. Reading the article is like backing up data. I'll do that "later" of course. ;)

This is good news, though. The discovery of life in extreme conditions always raises the possibility of discovering life somewhere besides planet Earth.

I read that there were some sort of organisms on the outside of the command module that actually survived the trip to and back on Apollo 11. That means surviving re-entry... that's pretty incredible.

Also, didn't some of the creatures on board Columbia survive the disaster?

All things considered, extra-terrestrial life doesn't look that far-fetched...

This discovery...

[zr-rifle]

...may have even great importance regarding the possibility of life on other planets.
If bacteria can flourish (or at least survive) in these extreme conditions, the often cited scenario of alien micro-organisms living underground may become more than a possibility.