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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.
I, for one, welcome our new iron-eating overlords.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Iron-eating bug found to thrive in 121C heat
By Steve Connor Science Editor
15 August 2030
If microbes could scoff, this one would certainly laugh at the people who complained about the searing temperatures last week, which reached a record 38.3C (100.7F) in Gravesend, Kent.
The microbe in question has been found to thrive at 121C (248.8F) - some 8 degrees Celsius higher than the previous recorded maximum temperature that a living organism could survive.
The newly discovered micro-organism does not yet have a scientific name but its finders call it "Strain 121". The researchers, Kazem Kashefi and Derek Lovley from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, found the tiny creature in a deep-sea volcanic vent on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, where temperatures reach 400C.
They put Strain 121 in a hot oven to find that it enjoyed the experience - colonies continued to double in size at 121C.
Dr Lovely, whose study is published today in the journal Science, said Strain 121, which eats iorn, might give an insight into the conditions that led to the evolution of the first lifeforms more than 3.8 billion years ago.
> Luckily it's only a microorganism.
Hmm, aren't microorganisms eating iron and surviving in ovens are harder to extinct than some cm long creatures with hands and feet?
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?
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
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?
evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!
Hah! How those fools laughed when I made my aluminium hat and bacofoil suit to block out the CIA's space-rays. Yet I alone will be safe from the iron eating scourge while those naysayers struggle to hold their trousers up as their belts are eaten away by the iron-devouring scourge.
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?
...an iron eating microorganism poop?
... gotta be a coke surely?
Once it's finished it's meal what's it's favourite after dinner beverage
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.
..... it'd have a real chance of surviving a fire ..... now that would be scary.
Just wait till someone finds a living creature that can withstand several hundred degrees
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
This would be really great material for a new episode. Of course it would have to include the line "Bite my shiny iron-eating-bug-infested metal ass!". :o)
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
Colonies doubling in size at 121C.
Now that's what I call hot sex.
So this is why you really should have proper cooling system in your Big Iron!
J.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
That would be 121 Celsius there Mensa...as opposed to the 130 fahrenheit that your runner bug survives at, which is only 54.4C
At last, we have something to stop those Air Force protecting robots
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
With the way things seem to be going (Intel's Prescott anyone?) we can be very fortunate that iron isn't used in CPUs!
.: Max Romantschuk
Best put-down.. ever. :)
You sure thats 130 Celsius and not Fahrenheit? At that temperature Celsius at 1 atmosphere or presure any liquid/blood in the bugs or worms would be turned to high temp steam.
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)
My web domain.
And his 140 IQ is actually only 60 ;-P
"Iron-eating bug found to thrive in 121C heat
By Steve Connor Science Editor"
I see that the son of Sarah is still researching ways to stop those pesky Terminators.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
You've forgotten the RIAA's secret weapon: CD eating fungus.
Aluminium eating fungus.
MWHAAAA.
Well, we can try this out to find out of Iron Man wears boxers or briefs or....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
But that doesn't mean most microorganisms are diseases. That Strain 122 will probably die in your body.
I'm fairly certain that nowhere on any desert does the temperature reach 250 Fahrenheit.
LMAO. Someone would need a jet engine for a cpu if it was regularly at 121 degrees C :)
Karma: -2^0.5 . Mainly due to the imbibing of dihydrogen monoxide
This is no bug, but a cover-up of a nanotech experiment gone wrong. Call Bill Joy, and pray that those iron-eating nano robots won't reach the surface.
then they will all be the size of dinosaurs eating our metal bodies. Then again I could just be suffering from to much caffine
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I think I did see that episode, now that you mention it. Thanks. :-)
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I guess it's a good thing you haven't programmed any interplanetary probes recently.
Tisha Hayes
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?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Bah the celcius scale is the devils tool!...ill be damned if i cant get 3 hogheads to the bushel!
We played dungeons and dragons for 3 hours.....then i was slain by an elf
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!
CowsAnonymous: We're here to help moo.
Excuse my ignorance, but what comes out?
Basically what does it turn the iron into? FeO2
Just curious.
The original news release, with mpeg videos, is available from the National Science Foundation website. Enjoy.
Yakov's greatest joke (or was it only great joke) was a take-off on the "American Express: Don't home without it" slogan that was used during the 80s:
"Soviet Express: Don't leave home."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The discovery of new extremophiles is very important to biotech.
A discussion of the various discoveries from extremophiles is here. I'm going to focus on one process, made possible by genes from hyperthermophiles from deep ocean vents. One process, PCR (Polymer Chain Reaction), the technology that allows us to create large batches of identical DNA, depends upon polymerase taken from these organisms.
The reason is this: in order to for PCR to work, a solution of polymerase and the desired DNA sequence is heated so that the DNA will quickly uncoil, allowing the polymerase to go to work - copying each strand of DNA present, doubling the amount of DNA. The solution is cooled, and then the process repeats, doubling the amount of DNA each time. Unfortunately, "normal" polymerase quickly breaks down at the best temperatures for this process.
Extremophile polymerase changes all of this, since it's perfectly happy to operate at these high temperatures.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 121C Heat
That's not a bug, that's a feature
I think the actual infection would be your smallest problem when swimming in 120 degrees water at several hundred atm pressure.
"they have bugs in iron nowadays!?"
In The Simpsons, Branson was described as "Las Vegas for Ned Flanders"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Luckily it's only a microorganism.
Microorgasms are usually a bad thing. It's usually caused by have a small thing or doing it really badly. See a therapist.
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
Thanks. I try to use that as my guiding philosophy. Provision of useless information is my forte. :)
Combine this with Yesterday's global warming story and all I can say is WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!
At least, not any more.
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
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.
-B
Only a fraction of a fraction of a % of all microorganisms are in any way pathogenic. Indeed your body largely functions as efficiently as it does because of the large quantities of symbiotic bacteria living on and in you.
:-)
Think of yourself more as an ecosystem than a single organism
well, the creatures are microbes, not insects or worms. and they live deep underwater next to active volcano's where pressure plays a part too. so yes, I imagine it is 130C
dave
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.
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?
Here is the newscientist link:
9 99 94058
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns
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.
Don't buy WoW Gold! Make it yourself!
I for one can't imagine trying to get busy with my wife in a 80 deg C hot tub. Mr. Johnson's operating range would be out of limits by then..
..........FULL STOP.
GM, Ford and Chrysler have purchased all of the samples and are planning on replicating and 'installing' them in their new lines of sport utility vehicles.
He said the funny words!
now I want to say the Funny words.
..........FULL STOP.
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.
Prions -- the deformed proteins responsible for Mad Cow, CJD, and related spongiform encephalopathies -- can survive autoclaving (steam at high pressure).
Autoclaved surgical instruments (e.g. eye-surgery scalpels) have been found to transmit CJD between patients. This means that the tiniest trace of protein on a knife blade isn't denatured.
-kgj
The pressure at any depth in the ocean can be approximated by assuming 1 atmosphere of pressure for every 33ft of depth. So, to calculate the pressure, divide the depth by 33 and add 1 to account for atmospheric pressure. Then, multiply by 14.696 psi/atm to get the pressure in psi. I don't know at what depth these things live, but the pressure has to be extreme.
Wasn't Seaquest supposed to be organic itself though? I seem to remember a few episodes where the Seaquest was damaged and it basically regrew the missing parts. Besides, I doubt we'll be building anything that deep or directly on top of volcanic vents anyway.
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.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
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...
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
You zap the rustmoster with a wand of fire. -MORE-
The rustmonster divides from the heat. -MORE-
Real men use Fahrenheit!
Science: Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 250F Heat
Corallary: real scientists use Kelvin!
Science: Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 394K Heat
Remember, if we start using celsius for temperature the terrorists have already won.
Luckily, if it ever becomes infectious we can cure ourselves with refrigerator magnets.
Snarfangel
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
..._Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters_?
Or that story I heard about, that ends with the termite "holding in its jaws a glittering crumb of steel."
By the magic of Google, I think it's Brockman of The Simpsons... ...SNIP...
No idea about IN SOVIET RUSSIA though mate.
Strangely enough, that soviet russia joke originates from Yakov Smirnoff. He is performing now in Branson, Missouri, which was featured in an episode of the Simpsons, with Yakov himself making an appearance in the family's onstage performance with other Branson performers that "most people think are dead."
He even gets the last laugh in the production number, Ode to Branson, with a play on his 'in soviet russia' joke, but I can't seem to find the line at the moment.
Incidentally, the producer of The Simpsons, Mike Scully, used to write jokes for standup comics, including Yakov Smirnoff.
Yakov's character sings:
::curtain closes::
"In Soviet Union, review watches you!"
The Rust Monster remark was a reference to (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons. It was a creature they made up to scare people with armor, it could destroy their armor :)
... if these things can live in 121 degree HOT GRITS!
man, those are the worst... every time I hit up David's Treasure Zoo there's always a rust monster, and I've forgotten to grease my longsword and helm of brilliance... I've lost so much good stuff that way
the coolest club on
Hell, it can have my share of iron, I don't mind...
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
"Strain 121" is now officially the best name for a metal band that modern science has produced in years.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
That explains the rust holes in every chevy truck I've owned.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Or maybe this happened once before, and the current universe is the product of Strain 121 excrement.
Man, that's a really weird thought. Must be Friday.
--- Ban humanity.
was the Fiat 128. They apparently used them for anchors on the way over from Italy.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Shhhh. You were not supposed to mention the other son, fathered upon Sarah Connor by Schwarzenegger's T99000 character in "T5".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Just think if the genetic traits (gene sequence) which allow these microbes to leave in such extreme environments were somehow found and made dominate in the human genome. Also I wonder if the most common microphages in the world would be able to feed on these extremophiles.
I knew Saddam had bioweapons.
Besides, the bug thrives at 121C. Guess what's the current temperature in Iraq's desert. 121F. Cant' be a coincidence.
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
Can't the Slashdot editors just write an automated script to post the message
'In Soviet Russia, I for one welcome all your first post belong to Natalie Portman. 3: Profit'
immediately any story is released and mark everything else as redundant?
And my IQ is 373 Kelvin. I'm uber-genius.
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
I read an article about this yesterday on BBC news that specifically mentioned that none of the high-temp microorganisms discovered so far have pathogens.
In other words, they aren't interested in the iron in your blood. Yet.
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
There was a short story in "Analog" some years ago where the protagonist used just such a bacteria to defeat invading aliens which had an iron-based skeletal structure...
Car drive in clinics anybody?
Oh well, what the hell...
Reminds me of those Transformer bugs that ate metal.
.smell my feet.
Here's what the surface looks like
magnetite comes out
Luckily it's only a microorganism. At first glance I thought scientists might have discovered a real-life rust monster.
Well, maybe if they stand on each other's shoulders...
Not to mention what the males erection must be like
Help fight continental drift.
Finally I think my Lady has a little competition.
Maybe.
Wanted : A Signature.
I could pour some on my sons' "new" pickup truck (that he just *HAD* to have and bought anyway) and then the neighbors would quit laughing..
Hey splice its genes in with something else that lives in the cold and another that that withstands UV radiation and seed it on Mars. Assuming we don't find any native life there of course.
I read this one wrong at first. I thought it said Iran-eating bug, perhaps something found in the hot Iraqi desert left over from the Iran-Iraq War that was going to be used soon....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I beleive they just came out with a patch for this bug.
The human body contains enough iron to make a small nail.
Remember those little carnies that used to visit your old home town? They all slammed head-on into each other at the original Branson traffic light and just stayed. I went to SMSU in Springfield in the days before Branson became the old folks home for the Grand Ole Opry. It's like the "Love Boat" quadrupled. Every cheesy thing ever invented, from piano-playing chickens to floating bumper cars at McDonalds, for pete's sake, is in Branson. Bring on them iron-eaters. Branson needs 'em bad!
...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.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
QED:
IQ != intellect
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.
In Soviet Russia, purity destroys you.
c-hack.com |
What missing words?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
At first glance I thought scientists might have discovered a real-life rust monster.
They have, it is just that this is the microorganism that is also a symbiot with gelatinous cubes in normal atmospheric conditions.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
And the bionic superment of the future use Rankine!
Science: Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 710R Heat
Is this perhaps the same space fungus that was eating the Mir space station that we brilliantly crashed into OUR ocean. Lets see. Weird space bug.... Eats space ships... Lived in space... Yeah, why not, lets bring it to earth!
-- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
We agree.
Prions are not alive. They are proteins, naturally occuring in the brain. Prions can become deformed -- same molecule, different geometry -- and this 'rogue' version causes deformation of nearby normal prions. It's not a living organism, yet the effect is infectious. The situation is not well understood, and there is considerable debate about the nature of prions, spongiform encephalopathies, etc.:
-kgj
Once I saw your post I recognized them immediately. Of course, growing up, we always called them by their common name -- sea monkeys. In Soviet Russia, do monkey sea monkey.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Proteins deformed by heat can also have the geometric properties of prions. There is some truth to the fact that cooking food is not always very healthy.
Specifically, the geometric properties of deformed prions (as opposed to normal prions).
-kgj