Underwater Chemical Garden Powers a Light Bulb

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Underwater Chemical Garden Powers a Light Bulb

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 7, 2015 @05:55AM from the two-green-thumbs-up dept.

Zothecula writes: Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have grown underwater chimney-like structures capable of generating enough electricity to power a light bulb. The team linked several of these chimneys to get the required electricity. Their findings indicate that the seafloor equivalents of these chemical gardens might just have contributed the electricity needed for the Earth's first organisms to develop.

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Light Bulb? by Lumpy · 2015-08-07 06:04 · Score: 1, Offtopic

It powers a single LED very dimly.
I really suggest the summary needs to be corrected as it's WAY WAY off an horribly misleading.

--
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
1. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-07 06:21 · Score: 0
  
  I personally don't believe life originated here, I think it's more likely that more primitive microbes started elsewhere, and when that elsewhere planet was subjected to meteor bombardment, its ejecta seeded life on other planets in its star cluster, including ours.
  Of course, we've long since drifted away from that cluster, and who knows if any sapient life exists in those former neighboring systems.
  Having said all of that, I don't think we'll necessarily find the conditions that started life here.
2. Re: Light Bulb? by XxtraLarGe · 2015-08-07 06:47 · Score: 1
  
  I personally don't believe life originated here, I think it's more likely that more primitive microbes started elsewhere, and when that elsewhere planet was subjected to meteor bombardment, its ejecta seeded life on other planets in its star cluster, including ours.
  Panspermia is one of the hardest ideas for me to wrap my mind around. Life emerges on another planet. Planet is hit by a meteor and ejects the life forms into the vacuum space, where they are subject to massive amounts of radiation. They travel millions (if not billions) of kilometers for millions (if not billions) of years. The ejected chunks also need to not be pulled into any stars they might be passing by or pulverized by other collisions with objects in space. Then they need to land on a planet capable of supporting that particular kind of life while passing through its atmosphere and impacting at high speed with massive force. It takes an improbable event like abiogenesis and increases it by another exponent of improbability, which equates to impossible in my mind.
  
  --
  Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
3. Re: Light Bulb? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:54 · Score: 0
  
  How was life created on that other planet?
4. Re:Light Bulb? by coryhamma · 2015-08-07 07:08 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Can we please replace ubiquitous terms like "can power a light bulb" with the precise voltage + wattage or amperage that they were able to obtain from their energy source, in addition to the time it was able to sustain this energy output? Maybe also mention the mass and density of the substance providing the energy? If we could get this going in the description/abstract, that would be really great.
5. Re:Light Bulb? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 07:18 · Score: 0
  
  Don't you know the only official units around here are Libraries of Congresses for data, rods for distances, fortnights for time and energy consumption in units of lightbulbs lit(or in how many New York Cities it would power).
6. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-07 08:05 · Score: 1
  
  I think you're missing something critical here. At the time we believe life began, Earth wasn't even fully formed. Not only that, but the nearest star to us was within the millions range of miles, meaning that its planets and our planets likely had periods where they were considerably closer to one another than their parent stars.
  Sure, it seems improbable today because of the vast distance other stars are from us, however that wasn't the case several billion years ago.
  Not only that, but we already know that microbes can actually thrive in space.
7. Re: Light Bulb? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 10:04 · Score: 0
  
  This is entirely bullshit. Why would you post such nonsense?
  1) Life is theorized to have arisen multiple times on early Earth, in between giant catastrophic impacts. Once the solar system was quieter, it "stuck" and here we are.
  2) The Sun is nearly 100 million miles from the Earth, and has been as long as they have both been in existence. Any other star coming in between would have utterly destroyed the solar system. It has been theorized that the solar system's Oort cloud was shaped by close encounters with other stars at a distance of around a light year but that's pointless to even measure in miles.
  3) Microbes "thriving" in space have never been detected, so we clearly don't "know" that. In any case, it's much more likely for life to evolve on a planet than for life to evolve on a planet, then magically survive transportation through space and arrive on another planet where it can also magically survive.
8. Re: Light Bulb? by sumdumass · 2015-08-07 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  Probably in a similar way they theorize on this planet but with the missing ingredient that we cannot seem to find to create life on this planet- even to this day. Of course we can bend and mold existing life forms into uniquely different forms, but we are starting with life already.
9. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-07 12:25 · Score: 1
  
  What a hostile response. Sounds like I'm speaking to the pope. I'm sorry I upset your religious worldview. Put down your bible for a minute, and I'll go through your points:
  
  1) Life is theorized to have arisen multiple times on early Earth, in between giant catastrophic impacts. Once the solar system was quieter, it "stuck" and here we are.
  Maybe, but there's also very compelling evidence that says otherwise:
  http://science.slashdot.org/st...
  
  2) The Sun is nearly 100 million miles from the Earth, and has been as long as they have both been in existence. Any other star coming in between would have utterly destroyed the solar system. It has been theorized that the solar system's Oort cloud was shaped by close encounters with other stars at a distance of around a light year but that's pointless to even measure in miles.
  Except when Earth was a protoplanet. Earth has only fully cleared its orbital position of meteors somewhat recently. Now, I'm not saying that the edge of another star system came within a hundred million miles, rather likely somewhere under a billion.
  It's entirely likely that all of our planets received ejecta containing this material, but remember that Earth is the only planet to truly be within the Goldilocks zone.
  
  3) Microbes "thriving" in space have never been detected, so we clearly don't "know" that. In any case, it's much more likely for life to evolve on a planet than for life to evolve on a planet, then magically survive transportation through space and arrive on another planet where it can also magically survive.
  I'm sorry that wasn't mentioned in your bible, but it is mentioned here:
  http://gizmodo.com/why-do-bact...
  And here:
  http://content.time.com/time/h...
  And a lot of other places, if you just looked up from your bible. I know, I know, it's hard to get past a self inflicted dogmatic view, but all I ask is that you try.
10. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-07 12:27 · Score: 1
  
  That would be hard to determine without actually seeing said planet.
11. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-07 12:31 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, and also:
  http://science1.nasa.gov/scien...
  Basically, Apolo astronauts found a camera from a probe mission whose previous handlers sneezed on it. It was on the moon for a total of three years, and the bacteria were still growing.
  A similar outcome found here, this time deliberately:
  http://helix.northwestern.edu/...
12. Re: Light Bulb? by Dutch+Gun · 2015-08-07 18:37 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand something about this particular theory. Life had to start somewhere, right? Why does it make more sense for it to have been formed somewhere else and transported here rather than being home grown? What makes some other planet a more amenable nursery for life?
  Essentially, it seems like if it can start in one place, it can start in many places, including Earth. Moreover, if it starts here, it seems a heck of a lot more likely to *thrive* here. And a not-yet-fully-formed Earth doesn't seem like all that difficult an obstacle, given the many extremophiles we've seen.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
13. Re: Light Bulb? by ArmoredDragon · 2015-08-10 16:26 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand something about this particular theory. Life had to start somewhere, right? Why does it make more sense for it to have been formed somewhere else and transported here rather than being home grown?
  Somebody did a mathematical model for the rate at which they believe life forms evolve new nucleotide sequences (or rather, they created a few possible ones) and found that it's likely that life began a billion or two years before the time period that we believe that our planet likely began.
Uh-Oh by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2015-08-07 06:10 · Score: 1

If you connect this article with this one it means the Earth itself could be a giant brain and we're actually parasites.
1. Re:Uh-Oh by The-Ixian · 2015-08-07 06:24 · Score: 1
  
  Well... we are parasites.... no question about it...
  
  --
  My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
2. Re:Uh-Oh by BradleyUffner · 2015-08-07 06:31 · Score: 1
  
  Well... we are parasites.... no question about it...
  Not true, it's more of a symbiotic relationship. We are part of the food web, just like every other creature on the planet. Our body waste (and eventually our own dead bodies) will go on to nourish many bacteria species. We actively plant trees and grow food. It's the same relationship our own gut bacteria have with us.
The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:12 · Score: 0

They think some angry invisible man in the sky created life. They're so illogical and ignorant.
1. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:17 · Score: 1
  
  All intelligent people know that Earth was seeded with life by aliens long ago, and they'll be back to harvest humans to create their youth serum in Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
2. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:28 · Score: 0
  
  I know, right?!? That's why I support the other party. Them, and the MOO COW guy.
3. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:33 · Score: 0
  
  They think some angry invisible man in the sky created life. They're so illogical and ignorant.
  No, actually if you read the article that describes the experiment, it's pretty clear that this "re-creation" was very much engineered and took "Months of painstaking lab work". Screams "Intelligent design" and not proof that life just happened out of nothing to me.
  Seems you are the ignorant one too. Most people who believe in God do NOT consider him angry, quite the opposite, He is seen as forgiving and a loving father who cares for His children deeply, even the ones who choose to reject Him. Plus most of us believe that He has actually appeared in human form in the past and promises to visibly return so he's not invisible. So your idea that God is angry and invisible is not correct and shows that you are ignorant of the facts here.
  However, I get that you have to talk down such beliefs and choose to remain ignorant of what you so confidently speak. Actually investigating the facts and choosing to represent them fairly might lead to some uncomfortable questions for you to answer about personal responsibility and judgment, because IF God actually exists, you are in serious trouble when eternity rolls around.... Here's hoping you find the truth....
4. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 06:56 · Score: 1
  
  No, actually if you read the article that describes the experiment, it's pretty clear that this "re-creation" was very much engineered and took "Months of painstaking lab work". Screams "Intelligent design" and not proof that life just happened out of nothing to me.
  No, it screams that it takes a lot of human effort to create a situation that can naturally occur in the real world, and be sure that the model is real.
  It's no different than making a wind tunnel to model air flow.
  
  Seems you are the ignorant one too. Most people who believe in God do NOT consider him angry, quite the opposite, He is seen as forgiving and a loving father who cares for His children deeply, even the ones who choose to reject Him. Plus most of us believe that He has actually appeared in human form in the past and promises to visibly return so he's not invisible. So your idea that God is angry and invisible is not correct and shows that you are ignorant of the facts here.
  Most people want God to forgive them, while punishing their enemies harshly, even for the most trivial of offenses, in my experience. What do you think?
  
  However, I get that you have to talk down such beliefs and choose to remain ignorant of what you so confidently speak. Actually investigating the facts and choosing to represent them fairly might lead to some uncomfortable questions for you to answer about personal responsibility and judgment, because IF God actually exists, you are in serious trouble when eternity rolls around.... Here's hoping you find the truth....
  Oh wait, there you go, not wanting God to be forgiving or understanding at all.
  Huh.
5. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 08:02 · Score: 0
  
  You are reading way to much into this...
  
  No, actually if you read the article that describes the experiment, it's pretty clear that this "re-creation" was very much engineered and took "Months of painstaking lab work". Screams "Intelligent design" and not proof that life just happened out of nothing to me.
  No, it screams that it takes a lot of human effort to create a situation that can naturally occur in the real world, and be sure that the model is real.
  It's no different than making a wind tunnel to model air flow.
  Engineering a wind tunnel to test something is obviously ENGINEERING... You can deride the position, but all the "experiment" has proven is that we can engineer something. I'm not saying that it's poof of a designer, but the experiment in the lab was obviously engineered. Which, like it or not, is an argument for intelligent design... If it takes this much effort to reproduce it in the lab, it prove that life, even basic life is pretty complex stuff. Complexity implies engineering. Is it proof? I suppose not, but it is evidence that random chance is a pretty slim idea...
  
  Most people want God to forgive them, while punishing their enemies harshly, even for the most trivial of offenses, in my experience. What do you think?
  
  That's a fair question. Personally I don't wish punishment on ANYBODY, enemy or friend. Further, I have no special privilege or responsibility to act in the place of God to judge, punish or reward anybody else. So, where I may choose to voice a warning to you "Hey, God clearly says that judgment comes to people who do that kind of thing" it is because I don't want you punished, much like one child may say to the other "Hey, if dad finds you doing that, he's going to really thrash you." So where God promises to judge and punish sin, it is not my place to do it for Him, in fact I'm commanded NOT to.
  
  However, I get that you have to talk down such beliefs and choose to remain ignorant of what you so confidently speak. Actually investigating the facts and choosing to represent them fairly might lead to some uncomfortable questions for you to answer about personal responsibility and judgment, because IF God actually exists, you are in serious trouble when eternity rolls around.... Here's hoping you find the truth....
  Oh wait, there you go, not wanting God to be forgiving or understanding at all.
  Nice try. Where it is not my place to judge, there are things which are CLEARLY stated and I can confidently warn you about them. Heading into eternity (i.e. Dying) without having accepted the freely offered gift of forgiveness from God condemns you to punishment. However, this is YOUR choice, not mine, and in many ways not God's either. A holy righteous God MUST punish sin, and so He will. The question in this life is if you will accept the forgiveness freely offered by the very God who will sit in judgment, or will you refuse it.
  So what is this gift of forgiveness? How does one escape the wages of sin, death? By accepting through faith that God Himself paid the price for your sin though the death of His Son, and trusting that this act was enough to deliver you from the judgment you deserve.
  So you see, I have nothing special in me that entitles me to wish ill to you or anybody else, and I pray for your deliverance from the punishment that surely is coming if you haven't accepted the gift of forgiveness...
6. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by PopeRatzo · 2015-08-07 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  Most people who believe in God do NOT consider him angry, quite the opposite, He is seen as forgiving and a loving father who cares for His children deeply
  It depends on whose god you're talking about:
  http://vignette4.wikia.nocooki...
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
7. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by PopeRatzo · 2015-08-07 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Complexity implies engineering.
  No, it does not.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
8. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by linuxguy · 2015-08-07 08:47 · Score: 0
  
  > Most people who believe in God do NOT consider him angry, quite the opposite, He is seen as forgiving and a loving father who cares for His children deeply, even the ones who choose to reject Him.
  Cooking people in hell. Is that supposed to be for warmth?
  And killing all civilization with a flood for their "misdeeds"? Mercy killing I suppose.
9. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 09:01 · Score: 0
  
  You are reading way to much into this...
  I'm not the one reading anything into an experiment, you are.
  
  Engineering a wind tunnel to test something is obviously ENGINEERING...
  And this is obviously engineering an underwater chimney.
  
  You can deride the position, but all the "experiment" has proven is that we can engineer something.
  Indeed, the proof of the NATURAL occurrences would come from observations of the natural world, and then applying that into the engineered model.
  
  I'm not saying that it's poof of a designer, but the experiment in the lab was obviously engineered. Which, like it or not, is an argument for intelligent design...
  No, it is not.
  
  If it takes this much effort to reproduce it in the lab, it prove that life, even basic life is pretty complex stuff.
  Proving that life is complex stuff comes from observing life, through microscopes and the like. That was already established.
  This lab experiment is based on proving the possibility of life generating events occurring through an observable model.
  
  Complexity implies engineering. Is it proof? I suppose not, but it is evidence that random chance is a pretty slim idea...
  It is neither proof, evidence, or a good argument. Your implication, as PopeRatzo said, is a false one.
  
  That's a fair question. Personally I don't wish punishment on ANYBODY, enemy or friend.
  That's not the question I was really asking, but I can see how you might have interpreted the question that way, as it was not written in a very formal matter.
  The question I was asking was "What do you think about my experience?"
  
  Further, I have no special privilege or responsibility to act in the place of God to judge, punish or reward anybody else. So, where I may choose to voice a warning to you "Hey, God clearly says that judgment comes to people who do that kind of thing" it is because I don't want you punished, much like one child may say to the other "Hey, if dad finds you doing that, he's going to really thrash you." So where God promises to judge and punish sin, it is not my place to do it for Him, in fact I'm commanded NOT to.
  Given that it is your beliefs about what you think God has promised to do, that would be something where you need to recognize your own beliefs are determining what you think.
  
  Nice try. Where it is not my place to judge, there are things which are CLEARLY stated and I can confidently warn you about them.
  Confidence in the validity of your beliefs is itself a demonstrating of how you are, in fact, responsible for them, as instead of making it a matter of somewhat neutral observance on your part, you are instead doing so with an established belief in it.
  
  Heading into eternity (i.e. Dying) without having accepted the freely offered gift of forgiveness from God condemns you to punishment. However, this is YOUR choice, not mine, and in many ways not God's either. A holy righteous God MUST punish sin, and so He will. The question in this life is if you will accept the forgiveness freely offered by the very God who will sit in judgment, or will you refuse it.
  So what is this gift of forgiveness? How does one escape the wages of sin, death? By accepting through faith that God Himself paid the price for your sin though the death of His Son, and trusting that this act was enough to deliver you from the judgment you deserve.
  So you see, I have nothing special in me that entitles me to wish ill to you or anybody else, and I pray for your deliverance from the punishment that surely is coming if you haven't accepted the gift of forgiveness...
  Believing all of this is your choice. Believing all this confidently is also your choice. There is nothing sp
10. Re: The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 12:55 · Score: 0
  
  "A holy righteous god MUST punish sin..."
  Wait, I thought he was the guy in charge, the one that made all the rules. Who is telling him that he has to punish sin? If he makes the rules, he could be not such an asshole all the time, if he wanted to. Does God have a boss that makes him kill, torture, and enslave people? Is it turtles all the way up too?
11. Re: The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 13:34 · Score: 0
  
  Fair enough.. Allow me to rephrase that, put it this way.. God SAYS he will punish sin, and I believe He both can and will.
12. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 13:37 · Score: 0
  
  Obviously I'm talking about the God I believe in...
13. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 13:42 · Score: 0
  
  So you choose to judge God? What are YOUR credentials that qualify you for this task? Sounds pretty presumptuous to me...
14. Re: The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 14:14 · Score: 0
  
  Ok. I give you that. He said it. But my point still holds. Take the story of job. God allowed his crops, animals, employees, and entire family to be killed, and job himself to be riddled with disease, just to win a bet with the devil. How does that reconcile with a loving and caring god who doesn't enjoy torturing his slaves, I mean, followers?
15. Re:The Republicans will hate this! by PopeRatzo · 2015-08-07 14:44 · Score: 1
  
  Obviously I'm talking about the God I believe in...
  No, you were talking about the God that "most people" believe in. Here's what you wrote:
  
  Most people who believe in God do NOT consider him angry
  How would you know what "most people who believe in God" believe? It's a pretty big number, I'll bet.
  You might also say that "most people who believe in God" believe that if they pray hard enough, God will make their football team win on Sunday or will cure their cancer or help them buy the winning lottery ticket. People believe all kinds of things about God because He is a cipher onto which they project their needs and worldview. Angry people believe God is angry and there are a whole lot of angry people.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
16. Re: The Republicans will hate this! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 16:46 · Score: 0
  
  What are his credentials to judge me? Using your own beliefs, he made us with intelligence, free will, and a sense of right and wrong. But we should ignore all of that to serve "his will" even if it is wrong by our standards, because...god. Gimme a break. The guy doesn't even follow his own commandments.
Hot potato? by r_jensen11 · 2015-08-07 06:39 · Score: 2

So is this Jacques Cousteau's equivalent of a potato?
light bulb is correct by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 07:17 · Score: 0

led elements qualify as light bulbs.
"bulb" is just a generic term for the thing you wrap something in.
leds are a light emitting diode, contained, usually, in a translucent plastic "bulb" or other protective lens.
what kind of light bulb were you thinking of?
a bigger chimney would almost certainly power it.
did you finish reading the article in question, or did you just skip ahead to the picture?
and why am i pedanting at an 'ayseed?
yours retorically, etc.
1. Re:light bulb is correct by Anonymous Coward · 2015-08-07 08:56 · Score: 0
  
  what kind of light bulb were you thinking of?
  the kind I slip through yo mama's sphinxster night after night after night. No lube required. Not anymore, anyway.