Slashdot Mirror
NASA Scientist Revive 10,000-Year-Old Microorganisms (bbc.com)
"Scientists have extracted long-dormant microbes from inside the famous giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves in Mexico -- and revived them," reports the BBC. An anonymous reader writes:
"The organisms were likely to have been encased in the striking shafts of gypsum at least 10,000 years ago, and possibly up to 50,000 years ago," according to the BBC, which calls the strange lifeforms "another demonstration of the ability of life to adapt and cope in the most hostile of environments." With no light, extremophile species must "chemosynthesise," deriving all their energy by extracting minerals from rocks. These ancient microbes "are not very closely related to anything in the known genetic databases," according to the new director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, who helped conduct the research, and believes that the microbes could help suggest what life might look like on other planets. The BBC adds that many other scientists "suspect that if life does exist elsewhere in the Solar System, it is most likely to be underground, chemosynthesising like the microbes of Naica."
Even though these bacteria are still alive, carbon dating should still work as long as the organism is no longer absorbing carbon from its environment.
I've seen that film.
It doesn't end well.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
"How all Trump supporters weren't questioning his leadership qualities then I will never understand."
We were. Just the other option was worse.
Lesser of two evils really sums up US presidential elections.
"They look like little grasshoppers."
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
I have no clue as to the numbers or mass of these bacteria that munch on rocks beneath our surface. But just maybe they might displace algae as being the predominant life form on Earth. It has been said in the past that an alien species might see algae as the significant life form on Earth and only be interested with communications with algae. Even termites might have more effect upon our world than humans.
"How all Trump supporters weren't questioning his leadership qualities then I will never understand."
We were. But we thought the other option was worse.
We honestly didn't think Trump would actually try to appoint white supremacists, Russian spies and entire board of Goldman Sachs, to key positions. I mean, sure, a bunch of libtards said he'd do that but Trump said he wouldn't and why would we believe that he'd continue doing the same things he's been doing for his entire life when he was promising to Make America Great Again?
Who would have thought he'd eliminate environmental protections, allow pollution by the coal industry, repeal Obamacare without bothering to offer a replacement and try to build an insanely expensive and impractical wall that will do nothing to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants. I mean, yeah, he literally said he was going to do all that and all the libtards told us we should listen, but the whole campaign was about taking him seriously but not literally and who listens to libtards?
And we had no way of knowing that a thin-skinned man who has consistently used SLAPP lawsuits to silence people and drive them into bankruptcy would be a vindictive little shit once he was given power. Nobody could have seen that coming. Well, I mean, yeah, the libtards. Blah blah blah. We're never going to listen to them no matter how many times they're right, so just stop bringing them up okay?
Anyway, Hillary's emails! OMG!! No, Scott Pruitt's emails are fine. Hillary's emails are the problem!
FTFY
never mentions how that life might have started.
Terrestrial proto-life had Sol and warm seas agitated by tidal motion, but Mars gets 56% less sunlight, and Titan gets just 1% of Earth's solar energy.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Reviving a 10,000 year old microorganism? I see nothing that could possibly go wrong with this.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Sure, maybe you are the 1 in 300 million people who will never get sick, you'll never have an accident. But when you do get sick or old, or can't pay your bill because you had a car wreck 6 months ago and can't work, well then the rest of us will pay your bill. Because the hospital won't charge those who can't pay. You'd probably prefer someone die if they can't pay their bill. You might be that special person who never needs to go to the doctor, and you'll die without needing any medical care. Congradulations!
It saves money for us overall if there aren't millions of people who don't have health insurance. There are some other things that work like this, such as vaccines. Similarly, we pay taxes for firemen, even though, damnit, my house is never going to burn down.
56% less than what? If it's the terrestrial average I don't see the point. Scotland gets considerably less than that and there's life there. Not sentient life, but life nonetheless.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."