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UV-Resistant Micro-Organisms Discovered In the Stratosphere
junglee_iitk writes "Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on earth and highly resistant to ultraviolet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by some Indian scientists. These bacteria, which do not match any species on earth, were found in samples collected through a balloon sent up to the stratosphere in April 2005. The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing 16 evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes. Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in the liquid neon to create a 'cryopump effect.' These cylinders after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 to 41 km were parachuted down and safely retrieved, it said." Here's the Indian Space Research Organisation's press release on the discovery. Adds an anonymous reader: "This paper in International Journal of Astrobiology [PDF] speculates how microorganisms reach the stratosphere."
Interesting information to be sure...
But how do these micro organisms interact with Human cells ?
Can they survive down here ?
Are the body snatchers on their way ??!!
Surely, we should welcome our new microscopic overlords before they take
over our minds and......**gurgle**
End of Line.
they're found on earth now!
Was Rimmer right after all?
Lister: Your explanation for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn't it? You lose your keys, it's aliens. A picture falls off the wall, it's aliens. That time we used up a whole bog roll in a day, you thought that was aliens as well.
Rimmer: Well we didn't use it all, Lister. Who did?
Lister: Rimmer, ALIENS used our bog roll?
Rimmer: Just cause they're aliens doesn't mean to say they don't have to visit the little boys' room. Only they probably do something weird and alien-esque, like it comes out of the top of their heads or something.
Lister: Well I wouldn't like to be stuck behind one in a cinema.
So if they're resistant to UV, which can kill many nasty bugs that plague humanity, I wonder which of our other defenses (antibiotics, autoclaves, etc.) they can survive.
I, for one, welcome our new radiation resistant bacterial overlords!
This is a serious question. I am an English major.
Seriously .. resistancy to UV means they are tough buggers to kill?
Clorox is not gonna phase these tiny invaders...
That's no atmosphere! That's a swarm of radiationresistent-bacteria reflecting radiation!
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Who knows what we'll find in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Maybe we've been looking for life in the wrong places all alon.
Of an attack by Xenu. As foretold by L. Ron Hubbard.
And in other news, AIG executives have once again failed to kill themselves. Thus proving once again sludge and micro-organisms can be hard to get rid of. Head Klingon, Senator Grassley is quoted as saying: "They have no honor!"
I trust you all know about the TB bacteria, which in recent years has regained prominence, due mainly to the fact that (multi) resistive strains are being encountered in patients worldwide with ever increasing incidence. But, we also know that TB is not so easy to transmit and that it's killed very easily by the rays of the sun. It's susceptible to UV and this keeps a lid on TB epidemics.
Now, imagine if somehow TB could be made UV resistant.
Wet dreams of some mad dictator in his efforts to conquer the world? Or destroy humankind altogether? This could be it.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Of course I haven't RTFA and I certainly don't mind micro-organisms reaching the stratosphere. But how come they don't fall down - that's what I want to know !
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
I checked the linked paper, from 2005, and while is presents some interesting arguments, it is not a thorough discussion of the subject.
Too many possibilities of Earth origin are rejected with the phrase "it seems unlikely", and there's no mention of the most obvious method by which the micro-organisms get there: random motion (OK, particle velocities in the atmosphere will not be truly random, but you'd still expect a few outliers with very high velocities.)
So, their conclusions may not necessarily be wrong, but they need to do a few more experiments before making a convincing argument that they're right.
(P.S. yes I am a professional Astrophysicist)
This is interesting. but not wholly surprising. Bacteria exist in basically every part of the world, including areas even a "reasonable" person might find incredible. NASA clean rooms have turned up a lot of exotic, unique bacteria which defy common sense (like bacteria who live solely on aluminum IIRC). So, UV resistant bacteria in the stratosphere is nifty in that they confirmed it exists, but isn't revolutionary.
Douglas Whitaker
Mechanisms for resistance radiation damage are extremely old in life. Half of Earth's history there was insufficient free oxygen to produce the productive ozone layer. Yet bacteria evolved mechanisms to colonize the energy rich top inches of the ocean surface and resist UV damage.
Many of these same chemical pathways were co-opted in aerobic cells. Free oxygen is toxic to many cells and parts of cells. Yet they figured out how to incorporate the toxic mitochondria energy engines. Mitochondria help cells generate an order of magnitude more energy than aerobic cells, setting the stage for later mobile animal life which requires lots of energy.
...from the results of the Scoop mission. Trying to collect bacteria from outer space and the upper atmosphere is a terrible idea.
I always find it interesting how local events, lore, and legends end up affecting future thoughts and research. I have no doubt that events like the Red Rain in Kerala lead researchers to come up with these ideas and projects.
I'm sure if I had more coffee this morning, I would list a few other examples I have come across in the past.
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
What the hell do they eat in the stratosphere? They must also be able to survive with very little water. Maybe they spend time in lower levels of the atmosphere.
1. Cross these UV-resistant bacteria with these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans> radioactive-resistant bacteria.
2.Blast them towards the planets/exo-planets
3.Let life take hold
4. ????
5. Profit!
A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
Ok, so here's my plot: They, like, scoop immortal UV resistant clone bacteria from the upper reaches of the atmosphere and, get this, it EATS radiation and so if you ...
It has?? When?? Oh.
Ok, so how bout this: So, like, this plane crashes on an island and the survivors run into a giant killer mutant iguana from the Badassic era but Ron Perlman shows up with this HUGE rail gun ...
Without any kind of background in the subject (disclaimer disclaimer) I've begun to wonder if the substrate for the emergence of life on Earth may have been carbon nanotubes or graphene on clays, with various oxidising agents as the energy source. This could apply also to remote moons.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
What a bunch of brain-dead idiots. That decision rates up there with the Brazilians importing Africanized bees to improve honey production - anyone in the southern US knows how well *that* worked out. What the h*** do we have the International Space Station for?!!
These bacteria were retrieved at "different heights ranging from 20 km to 41 k".
These altitudes bracket the surface pressures on Mars, and the conditions at 41 km are quite comparable to those
on the Martian surface (full UV flux, lower atmospheric pressure).
Given that material is exchanged between the Earth and Mars, I have to wonder if these might not be Martian bacteria.
I just hope they're not PENIS snatchers!! Otherwise, penis loves snatch.
Mac users exempted, of course.
There is another article from last year regarding the meteorites found in Antarctica, which were found to be loaded with amino acids. I also remember reading something about actual microbes/bacteria that were found to have entered the atmosphere from space quite recently, but I can't remember the link. It could have been this current story, considering the paper dates from 4 years ago.
I see no reason that this could not be valid. Comets and asteroids have near misses with planets quite regularly and the occasional glancing blow will surely take some of whatever is on the planet out into space. As the paper states, these micro-organisms are viable but don't respond to culturing. Which could mean they were alive but are dormant and don't respond to conditions here on earth.
Being previously undiscovered doesn't really prove anything as the Amazon is full of insects and other life that have yet to be "discovered" by man, but this is not definitively disproving panspermia. IMHO, this is one of the prime reasons for humans to visit Mars, as it is very difficult to get a robot to be able to spot these kinds of organisms, especially if they are not currently alive. The conditions on Mars are not favourable for large organisms, but if there is water ice, then you have the capability of getting H2 and O2 at the least. And as Mars has no magnetic field (to speak of), there would be large amounts of mutating cosmic rays hitting the surface continually for billions of years. It would be odd if nothing came of it.
I've been reading some of Asimovs later scientific essays, and he describes how you can predict with some certainty which planets are likely to have a magnetosphere. Basically, you need a reasonably rapid rotation, and a molten or high temperature metallic core which "sloshes" about as the planet spins. This core acting against the outer layers of the planet causes the magnetic field. The only real reason our planet is special, regarding life, is that we have an exceptionally large moon, too large in fact as conventional wisdom goes, to have been formed by capturing passing debris. We are almost a binary planet system, and that is pretty rare. So the possibility of life forming actually in space (rather than on another planetary body) has to be considered.
If we send men to Mars and they find similar micro-organisms there, then it is possible they came from space rather than evolved natively. Especially if there are no other traces of activity that can be construed as being the result of living organisms.
Interesting stuff, which can never be verified while we sit here exploring from a distance.
...I can't help thinking of the headline like this: "Creatures that Can Breathe Underwater Discovered Underwater."
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
The new dempgraphic will eat this up! Just think of it... we can tie in balloons, fashionable climate change zealotry, a discussion about sun screen... and because it was Indian scientists, they can really stretch the pop-culture connections, and have a sort of Slum Dog Xenobiologist thing where the scrappy kid from the wrong part of town discovers that we can stop the bacteria from creating dancing Bollywood zombies by sprinkling them with Splenda. I'm calling my agent - the screenplay just writes itself.
Speaking of which, has there been a Bollywood zombie movie yet? Sort of a Michael Jackson's Thriller thing, but with more colorfully dressed zombies?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I, for one, welcome our New Mutant Extraterrestrial Bacterial Overlords.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
They have finally proof that the Thetan exist! ;-)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/16/scientology_xenu_confirmation/
Seriously .. resistancy to UV means they are tough buggers to kill? Clorox is not gonna phase these tiny invaders...
This is completely wrong. They're resistant to UV because the upper atmosphere is constantly bombarded by UV rays. Clorox and UV rays' methods of cell destruction are completely different. In fact, they are probably less resistant to bleach/antibiotics etc than bacteria down here because they've never been exposed to it.
Not necessarily. Clorox is a highly reactive oxidizer. Much like ozone. Which is produced by ultraviolet light, thus producting the ozone layer, which is in the stratosphere. Where the microorganisms under discussion are found.
So if they live in the stratosphere, they're likely to be somewhat resistant to ozone as well, which means they'd likely be resistant to clorox.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
And... if they infiltrate our tissues, they'll develop a symbiotic relationship with us and we'll all be UV resistant ourselves! Sell your Coppertone stock!
Given that material is exchanged between the Earth and Mars, I have to wonder if these might not be Martian bacteria.
Great! That's all we need in these tough economic times: more illegal aliens!
anything living at that atmosphere level, or on mars, has been living there perhaps for a very long time. for such a long time, you couldn't say whether it was native to mars, or native to the upper atmosphere of earth
for such a long time in fact, that these bacteria might not even be native to this solar system, or even this part of the galaxy
for such a long time in fact, you could even speculate that the initial identification of these critters as being some exotic mutation of life on earth, is in actuality the reverse: life in earth, us, we are an exotic mutation of THEM
you can begin to talk about the idea that these indian scientists have the first inklings of panspermia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
tha the seeds of life, these critters, are absolutely everywhere in the galaxy
and its not just earth they could have descended upon, many billions of years ago
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Random motion might be a method if it wasn't for the tropopause - which they mention. What they do not mention is the other more likely cause - the amount of stuff humans throw up into the atmosphere, as all of their data comes from after the start of the Space Age.
Space craft, supersonic aircraft and weather balloons all regularly go into the stratosphere and could carry particles. 10 years of bacterial evolution would be enough to develop some UV resistance (if we work from the bacteria being deposited there in the late 60's and then sampled in 1978).
I love the way the media hypes up science stories. For one thing, the article says the organisms are "unmatched on earth". What does that mean? There are no other bacterial species with the same exact DNA? Big deal, if the DNA still can be fit into Earth's phylogenic tree. The article would have been more compelling if they said something to the effect that the new bacteria cannot be classifed as bacteria at all, from a phylogenic Kingdom standpoint, because their DNA do not seem to descend from anything else on the tree.
But no, they gave one of the species the genus Janibacter, and the other two new ones are Bacilis.... both geni that exist already on earth, which means at least from the standpoint of characteristics they've tested so far, these bacteria still show basic metabolic behaviors found on earth, save UV resistance at that level.
resistance to uv light is expensive. meaning the cell has to expend all of this additional energy just surviving in high uv. remove the uv, and now uv resistance is a handicap. non-uv resistant bacteria can grow faster and reproduce faster because they aren't wasting their energy. uv resistance bacteria, on the surface of the earth, would simply be outcompeted at any food source, and die off
we see that with antibiotic resistance too. currently farmers pump livestock with antibiotics (it makes for bigger chickens, pigs, etc.) such that all of the microorganisms in the area of these farms become resistant to antibiotics
but this doesn't mean antibiotic bacteria will storm the planet. simply because antibiotic resistance is expensive. so if you remove antibiotics from these farms, bacteria from outside the farm, that aren't wasting their energy resisting antibiotics that aren't there anymore, simply grow faster and outcompete the resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistant bacteria die off
its still dangerous though to use antibiotics in livestock, because antibiotic resistance normally would be something that bacteria would have to spend a lot of time and generations to evolve. but if you are actively breeding antibiotic resistant bacteria at various sites all over your country, you are seeding the environment with bacteria ready at a moments notice to jump in and take over from nonresistant bacteria. so someone using antibiotics is at sudden risk of reinfection by resistant bacteria, rather than only at risk of reinfection over many years time of antibiotic use, spent breeding resistance in their own bodies. which doesn't really happen, since normal antibiotic use implies a few weeks use
so antibiotic use meant for a few weeks time here and there will not breed armies of antibiotic resistant bacteria. but prolonged, extended use of antibiotics, for whatever reason, will seed the environment with resistant bacteria ready to render your antibiotic use completely ineffective
so we need to stop using antibiotics in livestock. but of course this meets resistance from the agriculture lobby, because now you are getting smaller chickens and pigs for the same cost of raising them
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
and... if it takes one to know one, then...
WE ARE THE MARTIANS
The Admin and the Engineer
A little more up and they could have collected all the space garbage on their way down ;)
1. panspermia, which these uv bacteria represent, means where life started isn't the issue, nor is how life started the issue. that discovering, for example, life on mars simply is no big deal, because life is simply EVERYWHERE. and that, in certain conditions ideal for life, such as you identify, the concern is not so much how life can start independently, but the new conception is that these are simply places that tiny intergalactic travelers can settle down in, colonize, and then give rise to more complex life forms, like us
2. ewoks on endor. enough said
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
That has got to be the shittiest logic I have seen in a while. Are you in politics by any chance?
Might these be some of the same forerunners of life on earth? They have found several bacteria that can survive the vacuum of space, it seems to me that the upper atmosphere is a great deal more hospitable.
This just in, Coppertone releases new sunscreen. Made from not of this earth bacteria, slather this on for the ultimate in UV resistance!
Yes the military has known this for years from the result of their SCOOP project. Radiation only increases the organism's ability to proliferate. Human exposure results in almost instantaneous blood coagulation. But the organism can only exist in a narrow ph band.
We are almost a binary planet system, and that is pretty rare.
Back when Pluto was a planet, 2 out of 9 planets were "binary". Is that "pretty rare" that's a judgement call.
Now that Pluto is no longer a planet 1 in 8 plants is a binary. Is that "pretty rare"?
But if we only consider rocky planets then one in 4 is "binary". That's 25%. Hardy rare.
We will have to wait many years untill you can see many rocky exo-planets before we can have a statistically significant number of them toknow if Earth is rare or not. Our current sample space is to small. Now all we can say is "25% but with a huge margin of error".
You know, thinking about it, since photosynthesis relies on CO2 as a key component to synthesize carbohydrates, possibly they've found a counter for global warming! I'm sure none of the existing AGW climate models include a atmospheric, CO2-fixing bacteria factor.
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
not so long ago, scientists thought life needed sunlight
this bacteria must have some efficient way of repairing their DNA.
perhaps these bacteria might have existed when the earth was still a molten rock billions of years ago.
for the record, i highly doubt humans will be extinct anytime soon. humans are really adaptable creatures.. c'mon look at carrot top. how is he still alive?
and yesterday only I bought a UV based water purifier, which as per the company kills all forms of micro-organisms :)
They get jetted up there every time someone flushes their toilet w/o the lid down!
Speaking of defenses...
I am sure the militaries are _always_ looking for new bugs to use as weapons. ...and movies as old as the Omega Man (1971) have entertained us with the idea.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
the chewbacca defense works in all situations, except in relation to chewbacca himself
unless you call chewbacca a nazi, in which case, chewbacca can use the chewbacca defense successfully
the chewbacca defense outranks godwin's law. but godwins law outranks everything else
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You've not looked in my fridge lately, have you! :-)
All joking aside, you do have a valid point.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
sorry
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Conditions at 41km are more like open space than the surface of any planet.
Rethinking email
Is everyone here too young to recognize the Andromeda Strain?
Too many possibilities of Earth origin are rejected with the phrase "it seems unlikely", and there's no mention of the most obvious method by which the micro-organisms get there: random motion (OK, particle velocities in the atmosphere will not be truly random, but you'd still expect a few outliers with very high velocities.)
Also, the "output" of the Earth's atmosphere was measured back in the 1960s and 1970s (and perhaps earlier). I remember reading a couple of articles in the 70s about our planet's "cometary tail", which was described as basically produced by the same solar-wind pressure as a comet's tail, and contains particles ranging from single atoms up to the size of bacterial spores. It was predicted then that when we examined the outer planets in detail, we'd find bacterial life there similar to Earth's, because that's where it came from.
The authors also pointed out that most of this dust tail would escape the solar system. It's a reasonable inference that we've been spewing this dust out, bacterial spores included, for some 4 billion years, which is about 16 trips around the galaxy, and the Earth's dust tail has permeated the galaxy during that time. Of course, this would be true of any other planet in the galaxy that has evolved bacteria-sized life.
The only real question is whether the spores can survive for long periods in space. 30 years ago, nobody had collected any bacteria from the Earth's outer atmosphere or from its dust tail, so survival time in space was purely conjectural. Now we have some samples that appear to be able to survive in space, at least long enough to get far enough away that the UV flux is no longer a danger. Whether these critters can survive the millions of years between stars is still a question.
But the default assumption now should be that some of them can survive. Most will die, or sleep forever, but some will encounter another object that contains edible food. Out between the stars, there doesn't seem to be anything we know of that would destroy something that can survive the UV flux of our stratosphere.
So the panspermia conjecture has just got a serious boost. And we've reached the point where, as the old joke goes, we present the most important statement in any scientific research: Further research is necessary. We know of a mechanism, and we know of a few bacteria that can survive the mechanism. But the numbers are all vague and fuzzy, barely respectable in scientific circles.
It's time to start applying for the funding for exploratory robots that can examine the outer planets' atmospheres and assorted planets' and asteroids' surfaces looking for more bacteria. We should expect to find earthly spores out there, and it'll be a surprise if we don't. Can we find tiny critters that are sufficiently different that we can say definitively that they didn't come from Earth?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
These bugs are closely related to common spore-forming terrestrial bacteria. What the researchers probably collected were stray spores (very resistant to drying and UV) just drifting around.
Too young, you whippersnapper. The book, followed by the movie. What in hell is a mini-series? A short set of baseballs games? When I was your age, I was older than you are.
Yeah, I remember old Michael Crichton, god rest his soul. Gave up medicine to write a book. Hope it worked out for him. Seems like he only had one good book in him.
Something tells me that life as we know it is a mutt: a mix of breeds from all over the solar system (and perhaps beyond). We may never know the original source. Cells love hanky panky.
Table-ized A.I.