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Ancient Ecosystem Found In Ice Pocket

Posted by timothy on from the so-it's-not-a-traditional-honeymoon-suite dept.

ApharmdB writes "Beneath a glacier in Antarctica, scientists have discovered a community of microbes growing in frigid pools of salty water. It's a particularly tough environment, with no light, no oxygen, and extremely cold temperatures. But the microbes appear to live — and thrive — off a combination of iron and sulfur, according to a new study. The result of that strange metabolism is a brilliant red streak of cascading ice called Blood Falls."

2 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can this be replicated for classroom use? by oneirophrenos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If these living creatures are harmful to plants, animals, or the other living creatures we depend on, then it's probably a no-go.

    This is extremely unlikely. For a microbe to be able to live within another organism, it would have to have gone through generations and generations of mutation-driven evolution so that it would not be instantly killed by its host's immune system.

  2. Re:Thaw out the New Plague! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That works both ways - bacteria that are too foreign will not be able to survive in the human body. Especially things like these - they live in sub-freezing, completely dark, extremely salty areas and live on iron and sulfur.

    There's not a chance that they are going to be able to survive in an environment that is 60-70 degrees F warmer, virtually no salt or sulfur, only a bit of iron, and highly oxygenated.

    These are about the last things that we need to worry about becoming a "superbug".