Iceland Discovery Promotes Martian Life Hypotheses

nusratt writes "This nature.com article reports research presented at the Bioastronomy 2004 conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. 'Scientists have discovered a community of bacteria living in the lake beneath an Icelandic glacier. The chilly world provides a model of Martian terrain and may boost speculation about the red planet's potential inhabitants. This is the first unequivocal example of life in a subglacial lake. The bacteria were definitely not introduced from above'."

Comments

"Not introduced from above"?!

[Ianoo]

Is the summary serious in the suggestion that these creatures are separately evolved from all the other species on Earth? A totally separate ecosystem with its own spontaneous life-forming process which created original strands of basic RNA/DNA/amino acids as occured for our ancestors in the primeval rock pools of Earth?

I somehow doubt it, for this would be a fairly phenominal discovery. In fact, if you RTFA, this isn't what's being suggested at all.

Until we find such an ecosystem, on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system, the probability of life begining on a world with suitable conditions is the most uncertain variable in the Drake equation. This discovery shows that life can survive in such an environment, but it does not show that it can arise.

Re:"Not introduced from above"?!

[spin2cool]

It's fairly obvious that the sumbitter is referring to the fact that the samples aren't contaminated with present-day organisms from the surface that infiltrated during the drilling or collection.

This doesn't at all imply that it's seperately-evolved life, just that it's life that's been isolated for a very long time. These kinds of conditions can often create unique selective pressures. As a result, these organisms could contain novel biochemical pathways.

A good example of a similar situation are geothermal bacteria living in underground hot springs. By finding and studying them, we found the enzymes used in PCR reactions. Without this discovery, DNA fingerprinting and genome sequencing would be much more difficult.

Re:The bacteria were definitely not introduced fro

[snake_dad]

"The bacteria were definitely not introduced from above'."

what's this crap remark doing on it?

Oh.. I finally get to say it: RTFA! (I know, I know, I'm not new here.. but it's such an irresistable acronym) It's an overly dramatic way of saying that the bacteria found did actually exist underneath the glacier, and were not introduced by contamination of the samples. That's all, nothing to see here, move along. And, AFAIK, Lake Vostok has not been sampled yet.

NASA has checked this.

[Eevee]

During the Apollo 12 mission, they recovered material from the Surveyor 3 probe. Examination of one of the recovered pieces showed that microbes had survived for over two years on the moon.

While the moon doesn't have an atmosphere worth mentioning for heating the probe during descent, it does become boiling hot during the lunar day. And, considering that you'll want to protect many instruments from extremes of heat, it may actually stay much cooler than 'boiling' inside the probe during the landing.