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."

Comments

Swell...

[DoofusOfDeath]

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.

Re:Swell...

[nyctopterus]

They are less likely to be able to survive those things. Evolution is a set of trade-offs. Being resistant to UV light doesn't buy you heat resistance, or antibiotic resistance. Get good at something, get worse at something else. In fact, I would think that these bacteria are cryophiles and wouldn't grow at body temperature.

Re:Swell...

[nyctopterus]

If a bacteria that is resistant to heat or antibiotics was in a high UV environment, there is nothing that requires, or even suggests, that it would lose its previous resistance as part of gaining a UV resistance. I'm not even sure where you'd get that idea?

I didn't get that idea. If course it's possible to be multi-resistant, but this has to come from not doing something else. The biochemical energy put into repairing DNA or heat-stable polymerases could have been put into reproduction, for example.

The idea I am countering in this thread is the idea that this is some sort of super-bacteria that will devour us all. Finding something new thriving in an extreme environment is a lot less scary than finding something new thriving in a environment close to our own body conditions.

Re:Swell...

[mpe]

If a bacteria that is resistant to heat or antibiotics was in a high UV environment, there is nothing that requires, or even suggests, that it would lose its previous resistance as part of gaining a UV resistance. I'm not even sure where you'd get that idea?

Without either heat or antibiotics being present a mutation which disables these does not negativly impact the survival odds of of the bacterium in question. Indeed if these are somehow metabolically "expensive" then getting rid of them is likely to be a plus.

It's ten o'clock, here's stoopid.

[bytesex]

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 !

Re:Aliens

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do Slashdotters who do this hate so much to give a reference to the movie/book/etc they're referring to? Would it interfere with you and a few others having an obscure-reference circle-jerk if you added less than one line of text describing where it came from?

Re:I hope they washed their hands after

[nyctopterus]

No, that's not what it means. It means they are resistant to UV. They are probably relatively easy to kill, because they have evolved for such a specialised environment. I bet they don't grow at very well at room or body temperature for example.

no, its stranger than that

[circletimessquare]

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

Re:What about Enceladus?

[pz]

incidentally Carolyn Porco is now my favourite female scientist

A good link to provide for Dr. Porco is the imaging project she runs, CICLOPS http://ciclops.org/ , since it's a wonderful site and the project under her direction has produced some stunning photographs and fantastic discoveries.

But, and I say this having spent some time with Dr. Porco, none of that has anything to do with her being female whatsoever. She is not a female scientist, she is a scientist full stop. And a damned good one at that.

It's likely that her being female has affected her career path, but that is entirely independent of the quality of her work. So why continue to promulgate irrelevant aspects? Dr. Porco is Caucasian, why didn't you say that she's your favorite Caucasian female scientist? It's irrelevant. Dr. Porco is a scientist. And, if Dr. Porco happens to be your favorite scientist, I'd endorse that wholeheartedly, as she's one of my favorites as well.