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

Welcome

[Phroggy]

I, for one, welcome our new iron-eating overlords.

Re:Welcome

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL, I love that quote.

Seriously though, the organism doesn't just chew through iron like a termite through wood. It only feeds off microscopic (smaller than itself) pieces of iron, such as wandering particles/shavings. Even if it were able to eat through an iron surface, its' small size would prevent it from doing much immediate damage.

Re:Welcome

[aug24]

Could you make yourself useful and round up humans to toil in their underground.... errr... iron mines...? Hey! That joke finally works!

J.

Re:Welcome

[aug24]

By the magic of Google, I think it's Brockman of The Simpsons:

"Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over- 'conquered' if you will- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthman or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves." (Deep Space Homer)

No idea about IN SOVIET RUSSIA though mate.

J.

Re:Welcome

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia jokes originated from a coldwar era soviet comidian, Yakov Smirnov. This pagehas a more detailed description, as well as some of the original quotes.

Re:Welcome

[skurk]

Regarding the "IN SOVIET RUSSIA" jokes, check out this article at everything2.com.

Apparently, a russian comedian named Yakov Smirnoff made a lot of jokes where he took, for example, a sentence and switched the subject and object around, removed a few words, and prepended "In Soviet Russia".

Like the example from the everything2.com article above:

• The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

becomes

• In Soviet Russia, lazy dog jumps over quick brown fox!

Just FYI. :-)

Re:Welcome

[anukit]

I was shocked when I opened /. this morning to find that a news story I posted on the UMass News Office web site had made it here. I work for web development here on the UMass Amherst campus, and it's great that there's finally some research that's getting press. If anyone's interested, the original news release out of umass can be found here: http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2003/08140 3microbe.html

Re:Welcome

[JimPooley]

I, for one, am getting fucking sick and tired of that mindless misuse of a Kent Brockman quote...

Mods: Let's have a new rating of "-10: Tired old joke" if you please!!!

Re:Welcome

[Cylix]

I, for one, welcome our new moderator overlords!

Luckily

[sploxx]

> 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?

Re:Luckily

[Dyolf Knip]

I imagine that the chemical reactions that allow this thing to subsist on iron don't work too well at lower temperatures anyway. Otherwise we'd have seen that particular niche filled here on the surface a _long_ time ago.

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?

Re:Depth vs. Temperature?

[Ubi_NL]

Almost certainly. Metabolic processes (enzymes) have a narrow active temperature range. My guess is anything below 80 degC will slow them down so much that they won't multiply anymore. They probably won't die either, just slow down

joris

Re:Depth vs. Temperature?

[ravenousbugblatter]

I read the actual article in Science Magazine and it says they don't divide below ~80 degrees C.

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.

Fear my Aluminium Suit.

[Channard]

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.

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?

Re:Only possible in the deep sea

[cruachan]

Proteins can be stabilised by increasing the number of S-S cross links from pairs of cysteines. Also the immediate intracellular environment matters and the precise nature of the proteins themselves - some of which can be amazingly stable.

Still, I agree with the sentiment. I grew some hot spring bacteria myself for protein studies back in the early 80's and even though these *only* grew at 80 degrees C I remember looking at the incubator (i.e. adapter oven) and wondering how the little buggers ever managed to do that.

Re:Only possible in the deep sea

[kaan]

I remember seeing some underwater footage on the Blue Planet series (very informative, if you ever get a chance to watch any of them). From what I recall, there are various thermal vents on the floor of the deep sea, which is about a mile down. Where these vents occur in the sea bed, you find huge plumes of extraordinarily hot water shooting up from the floor. It is only under the immense pressure at that depth that the water doesn't become steam. Anyway, while this Strain 121 critter wasn't mentioned in the Blue Planet movies, various other animals were, complete with footage of all kinds of little things moving around and appearing very active. The presence of a thermal vent on the ocean floor is very much like an oasis in the desert, and it attracts all kinds of weirdo life forms.

As far as pressure goes, for every 33 feet of water depth you add, it's 1 ATM greater pressure than on the surface. So if you're 33 feet below the surface, the pressure is twice that of being on dry land. If you're 66 feet below the surface, it's about 3 times the pressure. For every 33 feet down, you'll add another multiple. If you're about a mile down, that corresponds (approximately) to 33 x 160, which means that the pressure down there is about 160 times that of what we're used to on dry land.

I'll add that, according to the Blue Planet series, there are only a handful (maybe 5 total?) of submarine craft in the entire world that are capable of withstanding the intense pressures of the deep sea, which makes the continued exploration of the deep sea an extremely slow and patient process.

Too bad Futurama has been canceled.

[Rolo Tomasi]

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)

How sex

[vevva]

Colonies doubling in size at 121C.

Now that's what I call hot sex.

Re:This is not the first one.

[craenor]

That would be 121 Celsius there Mensa...as opposed to the 130 fahrenheit that your runner bug survives at, which is only 54.4C

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)

Re:This is not the first one.

[Alien Being]

And his 140 IQ is actually only 60 ;-P

Still fighting the Terminators

[AtariAmarok]

"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.

Bug my ass...

[sverrehu]

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.

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?

Re:How High?

[Pharmboy]

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?

And once you have cooked these little iron eating bugs, what kind of wine do you serve with them? Red or white?

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.

Don't Worry About Them...

[tds67]

...worry about the predators that feed on them.

What comes out

[Quill_28]

Excuse my ignorance, but what comes out?

Basically what does it turn the iron into? FeO2

Just curious.

Re:What comes out

[Anonymous Coward]

Ferrous Calciferous Lithium or (FeCaL(i)) Matter is what is produced.

Original newsrelease and mpegs at NSF

[loonix_gangsta]

The original news release, with mpeg videos, is available from the National Science Foundation website. Enjoy.

Yakov's greatest joke

[AtariAmarok]

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."

Re:Yakov's greatest joke

[tntguy]

Don't forget to preview so you can be sure you don't words out.

Immediate Scientific / Technological Impact: PCR

[tm2b]

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.

Not A Bug

[Biomechanoid]

Iron-eating Bug Found to Thrive in 121C Heat

That's not a bug, that's a feature

Re:Aren't most diseases microorganisms?

[void warranty()]

I think the actual infection would be your smallest problem when swimming in 120 degrees water at several hundred atm pressure.

Ned Flanders

[AtariAmarok]

In The Simpsons, Branson was described as "Las Vegas for Ned Flanders"

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).

here is the newscientist link.

[Wycliffe]

Here is the newscientist link:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9 99 94058

Re:Tota!

[Theaetetus]

They put Strain 121 in a hot oven to find that it enjoyed the experience - colonies continued to double in size at 121C.

Citing a need to find out what other organisms 'enjoy hot ovens', researchers will be continuing their work, this time with kittens.

;)

-T

Heat-Resistant Prions

[handy_vandal]

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.

Extreme Pressure

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

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...

Celsius? Centigrade? Pussies!

[Call Me Black Cloud]

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.

Now that's planning! Forethought!

[HarveyBirdman]

It will be the only organism left in the universe, trillions of years from now, when all the atoms are either fused or decayed to iron.

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.

All your jokes are belong to us

[Anonymous Coward]

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?