Extreme extremophiles

Marvelous article on a research scientists who goes 2 1/2 miles deep and then to the Arctic finding weird bugs:-http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-tullis-onstott-2-miles-down-microbes-live-radiation/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

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http://www.westernareas.com.au/phoenix.zhtml?c=169423&p=irol-growthportfolio#Biohea... technology is based on extreme thermophiles that have been adapted in the lab environment to work at atmospheric pressures but at high temperatures to leach metal sulphides.

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http://www.westernareas.com.au/phoenix.zhtml?c=169423&p=irol-growthportfolio#Biohea... 
> The technology is based on extreme thermophiles that have been adapted in the lab environment to work at atmospheric pressures but at high temperatures to leach metal sulphides.-All I can say is read the blurb, fascinating

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Anaerobic bacteria of the deep ocean floor in the crust of the Earth in rock 3.4 million years old:-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=life-found-deep-inside-earths-oceanic-crust&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20130315

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These Archaea living on coal and hydrogen and producing methane:-http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/23/ancient-microbes-from-a-japanese-wetland-found-deep-beneath-the-sea/-"Scientists say their home  most likely the ancient wetlands of Japan  was pushed underground more than 20 million years ago, creating layers of coal deposit under the ocean and becoming an extension of the ocean's vast and extremely diverse biome. The trapped microbes have survived in the environment for ages, and scientists say the discovery could provide a unique window to what terrestrial life was like all that time ago.-"The life forms are not abundant, and their metabolisms run at very low levels. Still, they are alive and well, surviving on powdered coal and hydrogen and pumping out methane, the signature molecule leftover by life in extreme environments. They belong to the less commonly known domain of life called Archaea, home also to the extremophiles living in volcanic hot springs and deep sea hydrothermal vents.-"'They're kind of just really cool bugs," Huber said. "They are very successful organisms.'"-Comment: once life starts it seems it can adapt and survive in any almost intolerable circumstance. How did life get this ability? Built-in with latent instructions (information), given instructions when needed, or able to develop solutions on the spot when required, which requires information analysis?

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These guys have special enzymes at work:

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-scientists-key-factors-microbes-harsh.html

"Three new studies by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) scientists have identified key factors that help microbes survive in harsh environments.

***

"The recent PNAS article builds on previous analysis by Prof. DasSarma and several colleagues, which identified key proteins in microbes found in extremely salty environments. They examined the amino acid composition of several of the microbe's proteins. The protein surfaces are negatively supercharged compared to all other organisms. These proteins use the negative charges to tightly bind water molecules in order to stay in solution and combat the effects of high levels of salt and dryness. They focused on a microbe called H. lacusprofundi (Hla), from Deep Lake, a very salty lake in Antarctica.

"They wanted to find out how proteins from the microbe function in the dual extremes of very salty, very cold environments. They found that certain amino acids were more prevalent in the microbe. They focused on one enzyme, beta-galactosidase. They discovered key differences between versions of the enzyme in Hla and versions in microbes that live in temperate environments.. Among the key differences: looser packing of atoms and greater flexibility in cold-functioning enzymes.

"Another study, published today in the journal Astrobiology, expands the study, by examining the role of enzymes in the microbe's ability to survive in the presence of toxic salts. This research has implications for decontamination of toxic environments, as well as life on other planets such as Mars, where these toxic salts, particularly one called magnesium perchlorate, have been identified on the surface.

"The third study, published last month in the International Journal of Astrobiology, showed that Hla and other similarly hardy microbes can survive trips into the stratosphere, many miles above the Earth's surface, where conditions are similar to those on Mars. The stratosphere is extremely cold, has little oxygen and has high levels of damaging ultraviolet radiation."

Comment: Once again enzymes come to the rescue. The same issue appears. How did evolution reach out and find these huge, bighy complex proteins? Dsigner help?!

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Bacteria have been found in an Antarctic desert with no plants, living off air gases:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171206132211.htm

"Sydney led scientists have discovered that microbes in Antarctica have a previously unknown ability to scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the air to stay alive in the extreme conditions.

"The find has implications for the search for life on other planets, suggesting e

"'Antarctica is one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Yet the cold, dark and dry desert regions are home to a surprisingly rich diversity of microbial communities," says study senior author and UNSW scientist Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari.

***

"'We found that the Antarctic microbes have evolved mechanisms to live on air instead, and they can get most of the energy and carbon they need by scavenging trace atmospheric gases, including hydrogen and carbon monoxide," she says.

***

"Both areas are pristine polar deserts devoid of any vascular plants," says Associate Professor Ferrari, of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.
The researchers studied the microbial DNA in the surface soil from both sites and reconstructed the genomes of 23 of the microbes that lived there, including some of the first genomes of two groups of previously unknown bacteria called WPS-2 and AD3.

"They found the dominant species in the soils had genes which gave them a high affinity for hydrogen and carbon monoxide, allowing them to remove the trace gases from the air at a high enough rate to sustain their predicted energy needs and support primary production.

"'This new understanding about how life can still exist in physically extreme and nutrient-starved environments like Antarctica opens up the possibility of atmospheric gases supporting life on other planets," says Associate Professor Ferrari.

"Most organisms use energy from the sun or the earth to grow. More research is needed to see if this novel use of atmospheric gases as an alternative energy source is more widespread in Antarctica and elsewhere, the scientists say."

Comment: How tough life can be in survival anywhere is obvious in this example. I would presume life was made this competent when life was started to make sure it would survive.

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A new group found that live in a very strange environment and a strange energy supply:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190207102621.htm

"Called Hydrothermarchaeota, this group of microbes lives in such an extreme environment that they have never been cultivated in a laboratory for study. A research team from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, ... bypassed the problem of cultivation with genetic sequencing methods called genomics, a suite of novel techniques used to sequence large groups of genetic information. They found that Hydrothermarchaeota may obtain energy by processing carbon monoxide and sulfate, which is an overlooked metabolic strategy. The microbes use energy from this process to grow as a form of chemosynthesis.

"'The majority of life on Earth is microbial, and most microbes have never been cultivated," said Beth Orcutt, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory and one of the study's senior authors. "These findings emphasize why single cell genomics are such important tools for discovering how a huge proportion of life functions."

"Analyzing Hydrothermarchaeota genomes revealed that these microbes belong to the group of single-celled life known as archaea and evolved early in the history of life on Earth -- as did their unusual metabolic processes. These observations suggest that the subsurface ocean crust is an important habitat for understanding how life evolved on Earth, and potentially other planets.

"The researchers also found genetic evidence that Hydrothermarchaeota have the ability to move on their own. Motility offers a valuable survival strategy for the extreme environment they call home, which has a limited supply of nutrients essential to life.

***

"In 2011, Orcutt and other project scientists sailed to the flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a mid-ocean ridge off the coast of Washington where two ocean plates are separating and generating new oceanic crust. They used Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's deep-diving robot Jason to travel 2.6 km to the seafloor and collect samples of the fluid that flows through the deep crust.

"These crustal fluids contained microbes that had never before been studied. Working in partnership with the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, the researchers sorted and analyzed the microbes in the Single Cell Genomics Center at Bigelow Laboratory. This cutting-edge research facility is directed by Ramunas Stepanauskas, a senior research scientist and study author. The project team also analyzed the microbes using metagenomics, a technique that extracts genomic information directly from environmental samples. These analyses yielded insights into the genetic blueprints of Hydrothermarchaeota, their relationship to other archaea, and the strategies they have evolved to survive in the subseafloor."

Comment: These tough-ones are Archaea from the most ancient forms of first life. Perhaps life first appeared from critters like these. We know that the switch to a caustic oxygen metabolism appeared much later, and its attendant oxidation problems were also solved. Is this inventiveness built in to first life by design?

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DAVID's comment: These tough-ones are Archaea from the most ancient forms of first life. Perhaps life first appeared from critters like these. We know that the switch to a caustic oxygen metabolism appeared much later, and its attendant oxidation problems were also solved. Is this inventiveness built in to first life by design?

I must say I prefer “inventiveness” to a library of information and instructions, along with instructions on which instructions to choose at any given moment for the next X billion years.

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DAVID's comment: These tough-ones are Archaea from the most ancient forms of first life. Perhaps life first appeared from critters like these. We know that the switch to a caustic oxygen metabolism appeared much later, and its attendant oxidation problems were also solved. Is this inventiveness built in to first life by design?

dhw: I must say I prefer “inventiveness” to a library of information and instructions, along with instructions on which instructions to choose at any given moment for the next X billion years.

I hope you finally accept that life requires a mass of information in order to function. I certainly accept that instructions for minor adaptation exist.

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dhw: I must say I prefer “inventiveness” to a library of information and instructions, along with instructions on which instructions to choose at any given moment for the next X billion years.

DAVID: I hope you finally accept that life requires a mass of information in order to function. I certainly accept that instructions for minor adaptation exist.

I have never, ever, at any moment, at any time, in any comment said that life did not require a mass of information to function! And I was under the impression that you only “accepted” that inventiveness (not instructions) produced minor adaptations. And what I have never “accepted” is your theory that the first living cells contained and passed on ALL the information and ALL the instructions for every undabbled innovation, lifestyle and natural wonder in the history of life.

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DAVID's comment: These tough-ones are Archaea from the most ancient forms of first life. Perhaps life first appeared from critters like these. We know that the switch to a caustic oxygen metabolism appeared much later, and its attendant oxidation problems were also solved. Is this inventiveness built in to first life by design?

dhw: I must say I prefer “inventiveness” to a library of information and instructions, along with instructions on which instructions to choose at any given moment for the next X billion years.

DAVID: I hope you finally accept that life requires a mass of information in order to function. I certainly accept that instructions for minor adaptation exist.

dhw: I have never, ever, at any moment, at any time, in any comment said that life did not require a mass of information to function! And I was under the impression that you only “accepted” that inventiveness (not instructions) produced minor adaptations. And what I have never “accepted” is your theory that the first living cells contained and passed on ALL the information and ALL the instructions for every undabbled innovation, lifestyle and natural wonder in the history of life.

I accept your statement as clarifying your position. As for starting information as life began, i'm still waiting for Behe's book to appear on whether advancements are due to deletion of code.

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Frozen a god part of the hear and survive:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/science/antarctica-insects-midge-cold.html?nl=todays...

"...the Antarctic midge, is able to survive at the bottom of the planet. Purplish, wriggly and the size of a pinkie fingernail clipping, Antarctic midge larvae live for nearly two years underground, often near penguin and seal excrement. They spend over half of their lives, about eight months of the year, frozen.

***

"When the midge larvae are dehydrated, “they look like little raisins” said Rick Lee, a professor emeritus at Miami University in Ohio. “You can’t imagine that they’re alive. And then you drop them back into fresh water — they plump up and they wriggle away. I always say I think I can hear them laughing at us because they are so used to dealing with these stresses. They are super-tolerant.”

***

"So how does the Antarctic midge do it? Part of the answer lies in its microhabitat. Whereas the air temperature in Antarctica routinely drops below -20 degrees Celsius, the temperature beneath the soil and snowpack, where midge larvae live, is just a few degrees below zero.
When the midge larvae experience cold, the icy environment creates a gradient for water loss, extracting water from their bodies. Some larvae are able to lose enough water that they don’t freeze at all.

“'The wetter a site is, the more likely they’re going to freeze,” said Michael Elnitsky, a biologist at Mercyhurst University who wrote his dissertation on arthropods in Antarctica. Some midges live on islands with grainy, sandy soils that dry up. Others live in areas with moist moss beds. “In a more dry environment, they use the dehydration strategy to survive the winter,” he said.

"Another tool at the Antarctic midge’s disposal is rapid cold hardening. Insects and other coldblooded animals (think fish and toads) can quickly change their physiology when the temperature drops to boost their tolerance to cold.

"The exact mechanics of this process are still mysterious. There seem to be changes, though, at the level of individual cells. As the midge’s cells cool, some of their properties change, causing calcium to enter. Dr. Teets knows from past research that if calcium is prevented from entering cells, the organism is no longer able to perform rapid cold hardening. The calcium itself isn’t protective, but it functions like a switch that causes other important things to happen.

Comment: It is always amazing to see how tenacious life can be. Many unanswered questions, such a how did the insect get there? Did it arrive in a warmer period and then gradually adapt? dhw will want to know about God's role. I assume adaptive instructions were provided.

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New found species can tolerate huge amounts of arsenic:

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/arsenic-resistant-nematodes-found-in-mono-la...

"In a study published today (September 26) in Current Biology, researchers found eight more species residing in the lake and its sediments—all hardy, tiny nematodes. Culturing one species from the group Auanema in the lab revealed that the animals are capable of surviving 500 times the dose of arsenic that would kill a person.

“'Mono Lake is famous for being a limited ecosystem in terms of animals . . . so it’s really cool that they’ve managed to demonstrate that there are a bunch of nematode species living in there, as well as the shrimp and the flies. It expands the whole ecosystem considerably,” says Lucy Stewart,

***

"Of the eight species of worms the researchers collected, three were already described genetically and five had not been sequenced before. Based on the structures of the animals’ mouths, the team predicted that the Mono Lake nematodes use a variety of strategies to get food, including grazing on microbes, preying on other animals, and parasitizing hosts.

"Sternberg, Sapir, Lee, and colleagues were able to easily culture one of the isolated species in the lab. They determined that the animals could survive concentrations of arsenic 500 times higher than people can, thanks at least in part to a mutation the dbt-1 gene, which is involved in amino acid metabolism. A look at three other Auanema species that had been previously isolated from much less harsh environments showed that they also carry the mutation, as does a Hawaiian strain of the popular model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The mutation in dbt-1 is likely not the only thing contributing to arsenic resistance, however, because the Auanema species survive better in arsenic than any strain of C. elegans. "

Comment: It is amazing how tough life can be in being able to survive what would kill most.

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2019 views

Cyanobacteria make water when needed:

"A team from the University of California (UC) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) studied interactions between Chroococcidiopsis – a cyanobacteria commonly found in deserts – and gypsum in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

"Or below it, to be precise. The Chroococcidiopsis exist beneath a thin layer of rock that gives them a measure of protection against the high solar irradiance, extreme dryness and battering winds in what is the world’s driest non-polar region.

"When gypsum samples were studied back in the lab, the most striking discovery was that the microorganisms change the very nature of the rock. By extracting water, they cause a phase transformation of the material – from gypsum to anhydrite, a dehydrated mineral.

***

"The cyanobacteria "didn't need water from the rock, they got it from their surroundings", says David Kisailus, from UC Irvine. "But when they were put under stressed conditions, the microbes had no alternative but to extract water from the gypsum, inducing this phase transformation in the material."

"Kisailus’s team used a combination of advanced microscopy and spectroscopy to examine the interactions between the biological and geological counterparts, finding that the organisms bore into the rock by excreting a biofilm containing organic acids.

"UCI’s Wei Huang then used a modified electron microscope equipped with a Raman spectrometer to discover that the cyanobacteria used the acid to penetrate the gypsum in specific crystallographic directions – only along certain planes where they could more easily access the water existing between faces of calcium and sulfate ions.

"'Researchers have suspected for a long time that microorganisms might be able to extract water from minerals, but this is the first demonstration of it," says JHU biologist Jocelyne DiRuggiero"

"'This is an amazing survival strategy for microorganisms living at the dry limit for life, and it will guide our search for life elsewhere.'"

Comment: Life was designed to be so tough, it will survive anywhere on Earth.

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Thought to be up to a 100 million years old:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/scientists-pull-living-microbes-100-million-yea...

"Microbes buried beneath the sea floor for more than 100 million years are still alive, a new study reveals. When brought back to the lab and fed, they started to multiply. The microbes are oxygen-loving species that somehow exist on what little of the gas diffuses from the ocean surface deep into the seabed.

"The discovery raises the “insane” possibility, as one of the scientists put it, that the microbes have been sitting in the sediment dormant, or at least slowly growing without dividing, for eons.

***

"To find out, Morono and his colleagues mounted a drilling expedition in the South Pacific Gyre, a site of intersecting ocean currents east of Australia that is considered the deadest part of the world’s oceans, almost completely lacking the nutrients needed for survival. When they extracted cores of clay and other sediments from as deep as 5700 meters below sea level, they confirmed the samples did indeed contain some oxygen, a sign that there was very little organic material for bacteria to eat.

***

"...in these samples, there were no more than 1000 bacteria in the same amount of sediment. So, the biologists had to develop specialized techniques such as using chemical tracers to detect whether any contaminating seawater got into the samples and developing a way to analyze very small amounts of cells and isotopes. “The preparation and care needed to do this work was really impressive,” says Kenneth Nealson, an environmental microbiologist retired from the University of Southern California.

"The added nutrients woke up a variety of oxygen-using bacteria. In samples from the 101.5-million-year-old layer, the microbes increased by four orders of magnitude to more than 1 million cells per cubic centimeter after 65 days, the team reports today in Nature Communications.

***

"Genetic analysis of the microbes revealed they belonged to more than eight known bacterial groups, many of which are commonly found elsewhere in saltwater where they play important roles in breaking down organic matter. “It suggests that learning to survive under conditions of extreme energy limitation is a widespread ability,” Nealson says, one that may have evolved early, when there was not much for microbes to feed on. “It may have been a very handy survival trick.”

***

"...the bottom line, says Bo Barker Jørgensen, a marine microbiologist at Aarhus University who was not involved with the work, is “low food and energy seem not to set the ultimate limit for life on Earth.”

Comment: studies like this have been presented here but with 'younger' forms. Life can be any where and can certainly survive.

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QUOTE: "...the bottom line, says Bo Barker Jørgensen, a marine microbiologist at Aarhus University who was not involved with the work, is “low food and energy seem not to set the ultimate limit for life on Earth.”

I can’t help wondering if, in say a few hundred years’ time, scientists won’t crack all the bacterial secrets and find ways to keep humans alive for millions of years. Perish the thought!

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QUOTE: "...the bottom line, says Bo Barker Jørgensen, a marine microbiologist at Aarhus University who was not involved with the work, is “low food and energy seem not to set the ultimate limit for life on Earth.”

dhw: I can’t help wondering if, in say a few hundred years’ time, scientists won’t crack all the bacterial secrets and find ways to keep humans alive for millions of years. Perish the thought!

Death has to be built in. It is not an error.

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Another reported story of these strange barely alive bacteria:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/zombie-microbes-redefine-lifes-energy-limits-20200812/

"Energy drives the planet; it’s the currency that all living things use to grow, develop and function. But just how little energy do cells need to get by? Sediment-dwelling microbes below the seafloor — which may outnumber the microbial cells found in the oceans themselves — are providing some surprising answers. The organisms not only challenge what scientists thought they knew about life’s energy needs, but hint at new ways of defining what life is and where we might find it.

"Last week in Science Advances, researchers presented the most complete picture to date of the strange, hidden biosphere beneath the seafloor. Ocean drilling expeditions have repeatedly probed those lightless depths and uncovered cells that survive almost in suspended animation, consuming orders of magnitude less energy than their neighbors at the surface. But the model presented in the new study shows that this zombielike state probably applies to the vast majority of microbes in ocean sediments — and that they typically subsist on energy budgets approaching a theoretical minimum for life.

***

"They found that the cells buried in ocean sediments operate at incredibly low power levels. In total, microbes in those sediments, which in some places might extend kilometers below the seafloor, collectively use a mere tenth of a percent of the power consumed in the upper 200 meters of the ocean. Each cell, on average, survives its sediment burial at a power level significantly lower than that of “some of the most energy-starved things in the world,” as Lloyd puts it — and orders of magnitude lower than that of any organism ever measured in lab settings.

***

"The implication of the study’s estimates is that this underground biome has almost no cell division: Some individual cells down there might be 100 million years old. It also means that in all that time, those cells might not have evolved or changed much at all. It’s a biosphere characterized by stasis. “Really, most of the cells are barely hanging on,” Amend said. “Our concept of how cells evolve goes out the window for this incredibly large biosphere.”

"And yet, because of their numbers and the eons over which they have survived, these almost- but-not-quite-dead cells play an important role in the production of methane, the degradation of the planet’s largest pool of organic carbon, and other processes. “They are such extraordinarily low-power beings, but they actually have an outsize effect on the Earth,” Lloyd said.

***

"The model in Bradley’s new paper hints at a possible explanation: When the 100-million-year-old sediment first formed, the trapped microbes might have actually had more energy or power. According to Morono, perhaps that initial condition, followed by a more immediate drop in energy levels, somehow made long-term survival likelier as the cells got buried deeper.

"He is hopeful that researchers will continue to integrate information from more studies into models to gain these kinds of insights. But already, modeling seems to have helped confirm something that many scientists have suspected. “What are the margins of life? What do you need for it to be life?” Lloyd said. “It turns out, not very much.'”

Comment: It is obvious life is determined to survive here. Yet it is very difficult for us to figure out how it started naturally. That is why I still support God as the agent. The design requirement is so strong.

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And also in other very cold Earth poles:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200819094756.htm

"In their first follow-up to a high-profile 2017 study which showed microbes in Antarctica have a unique ability to essentially live on air, researchers from UNSW Sydney have now discovered this process occurs in soils across the world's three poles.

"Specifically, researchers found the target genes responsible for the atmospheric chemosynthesis phenomenon they discovered are abundant and widely distributed in the polar soils of the Antarctic, Arctic and Tibetan Plateau in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas.

***

"A/Prof Ferrari said the researchers' findings meant that microbes which use trace gases as their energy and carbon source to grow -- unlike photosynthesis which uses light -- was not a process isolated to Antarctica.

"'There are whole ecosystems probably relying on this novel microbial carbon fixation process where microbes use the energy obtained from breathing in atmospheric hydrogen gas to turn carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into carbon -- in order to grow," she said.

"'We think this process occurs simultaneously alongside photosynthesis when conditions change, such as during the polar winter when there is no light, but we aim to confirm this hypothesis in the next stage of our research.

***

"'By looking at the environmental parameters in the soil, that's how we knew there was low carbon, low moisture and other factors at play," she said.

"'So, we correlated the target genes for the carbon fixation process against the different sites and found the locations which are drier and lower in nutrients -- carbon and nitrogen -- had a greater potential to support this process, which made sense."

***

"'A lot of these ecosystems are quite dry and nutrient poor -- so, these locations are mostly dominated by bacteria," she said.

"'Particularly at the original east Antarctic sites we studied, there is not much else there apart from some mosses and lichens (fungus).

"'Because these bacteria have adapted to survive and have the ability to use trace gases to live, their environment has selected them to become significant contributors to their ecosystems.'"

Comment: As usual the extremophiles prove the life of living organisms is extremely tough and can live anywhere it wants to.

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Very difficult to revive:

http://nautil.us/issue/92/frontiers/preserving-a-sense-of-wonder-in-dna?mc_cid=68eb156a...

"When we go beyond the top 10 centimeters where animals tend to be burrowing, there’s very little mixing and reworking of the marine sediments, he said. There are marine locations which have not had significant perturbations for millions of years.

"These habitats are hard to mimic in the laboratory given their extreme energy limitations. Among the habitats that Bradley studies is the South Pacific Gyre. The crew of the ship JOIDES Resolution drilled a long vertical core from the gyre, wearing masks to protect themselves from the hydrogen sulphide gas the core emits. Such cores can be hundreds of meters long, taken up in sections.

***

“'From analyzing what is contained in this core, from the top of it to the bottom of it, you’re going from a modern environment, all the way to an ancient environment,” said Bradley. From the South Pacific gyre, the cores can date upward of 95 million years old.4 The hydrogen sulphide is a byproduct of metabolism. That this is measured is a “good indication we have living and breathing organisms that are surviving in this habitat,” he said. In a 2018 paper, writing about the Deep Biosphere, Bradley noted, “the fitness of a microorganism may not be determined by its growth, but rather its ability simply to stay alive.”

"He is particularly interested in understanding what the energy limits may be for such organisms. “That is a tough line to draw,” he said, “because the amount of energy that these organisms are processing is so close to zero.” There is an energetic shift from when organisms are in growth mode and move to maintenance mode, and then to what Bradley calls a “deeper state of dormancy.” He said, “It’s reduced its basal maintenance energy requirement to even lower than it was previously, where it was not growing.”

"A human typically runs on 100 watts of power while an organism from the deep subsurface theoretically may run at about 10 to the power of -21 watts. “So that’s more than a hundred billion-billion, I’m not sure how many billions…” times lower than the power that a human runs on, he said. The -21 is a theoretical limit though, and Bradley estimates that organisms would be subsisting at a higher power threshold.

"Bradley points to a surreal aspect. Experimentalists struggle to grow and culture these ancient organisms. To his knowledge, the time taken for them to revive has taken up to 1,000 days. For organisms that did not revive, it is possible that the variable that’s missing is not nutrients but time for the super-slow organisms to grow. “We might be testing conditions in the lab over too small a time scale,” he said."

Comment: Apparently, as described before living organisms can be exceedingly tough and survive in very severe conditions. Adaptability in the extreme is built into life.

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From a deep probe:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267737-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet-sho...

"The inadvertent discovery of sea life on a boulder beneath an Antarctic ice shelf challenges our understanding of how organisms can live in environments far from sunlight, according to a team of biologists.

"James Smith and Paul Anker at the British Antarctic Survey drilled through the 900-metre-thick Filchner-Ronne ice shelf and dropped a camera down the hole in search of mud on the seabed. To their surprise, it revealed a boulder ringed by animals. Footage appears to show 16 sponges, accompanied by 22 unidentified animals that could include barnacles. It is the first time that immobile life like these creatures has been found beneath an Antarctic ice sheet.

***

"It isn’t yet clear whether the rock-hugging animals are new to science, how long they live – some Antarctic glass sponges are more than 10,000 years old – or how often they feed, be it once a year, a decade or a century. But there are signs that the life on this single boulder isn’t a one-off: filming also captured a single sponge on another rock nearby.

***

"The find is significant because it suggests life in Antarctica’s harshest environments is more adaptable and more diverse than thought.

“'We’ve discovered this isn’t some graveyard where a few things cling on, it’s more complicated than we thought,” says Griffiths. As ice sheets collapse in a warming world, species such as those found on the boulder may prove to be unable to respond to rapid changes.

"Learning more about how the organisms have adapted to their freezing home far from food may also give us clues about how life evolved how life evolved during a “snowball Earth” period hundreds of millions of years ago in which the planet was covered in ice during."

Comment: Just more evidence showing how tough life is, surviving errywhere..

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1582 views

More on these sessile creatures:

https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AN1AQ5wCgIg6YDhnwQ6C2OhuQeY?.intl=us&.p...

"A new study details the discovery of sessile organisms found deep below Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The organisms were anchored to a boulder 900 meters beneath the ice, living a cold, dark existence miles away from the open ocean. "This discovery is one of those fortunate accidents that pushes ideas in a different direction and shows us that Antarctic marine life is incredibly special and amazingly adapted to a frozen world," Dr Huw Griffiths, the study's lead author and a biogeographer of the British Antarctic Survey, said in a press release. Sessile creatures are defined by their inability to move freely. They live their lives anchored to a substrate—in this case, the aforementioned boulder. Common sessile animals found in coastal tide pools include mussels, barnacles, and sea anemones, yet none of these were present beneath the Antarctic shelf. Instead, the researchers discovered a stalked sponge, roughly a dozen non-stalked sponges, and 22 unidentifiable stalked organisms.

"Sessile organisms depend on their food to be delivered to them. That's why they are so bountiful in tide pools; tides and currents are the DoorDash of the ocean world. It's also why the researchers found the sponge's Antarctic lodgings so astounding. Because they live 1,500 kilometers upstream from the nearest source of photosynthesis, it's unknown how a food supply reaches these sponges or whether they generate nutrients from some other means, such as glacial melt or carnivorous noshing."

Comment: These immobile organisms are surviving. The point I am making is life always survives, so survival is not an issue that drives evolution. Life designed peremptorily to survive. Opposite to the Darwin approach. Extremophiles make the concept clear.

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1570 views

It is from radioactive production of hydrogen and oxidents:

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-microbes-deep-beneath-seafloor-survive.html

"A team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and their collaborators have revealed that the abundant microbes living in ancient sediment below the seafloor are sustained primarily by chemicals created by the natural irradiation of water molecules.

"The team discovered that the creation of these chemicals is amplified significantly by minerals in marine sediment. In contrast to the conventional view that life in sediment is fueled by products of photosynthesis, an ecosystem fueled by irradiation of water begins just meters below the seafloor in much of the open ocean. This radiation-fueled world is one of Earth's volumetrically largest ecosystems.

***

"The process driving the research team's findings is radiolysis of water—the splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxidants as a result of being exposed to naturally occurring radiation. Steven D'Hondt, URI professor of oceanography and a co-author of the study, said the resulting molecules become the primary source of food and energy for the microbes living in the sediment.

"'The marine sediment actually amplifies the production of these usable chemicals," he said. "If you have the same amount of irradiation in pure water and in wet sediment, you get a lot more hydrogen from wet sediment. The sediment makes the production of hydrogen much more effective."

***

"Sauvage irradiated vials of wet sediment from various locations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, collected by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and by U.S. research vessels. She compared the production of hydrogen to similarly irradiated vials of seawater and distilled water. The sediment amplified the results by as much as a factor of 30."

Comment: the first point is to note that these organisms survive easily in the most extreme and unusual way. In my view God made them that way. And it is purposeful. Life/organisms will always survive because they are built to survive by God. The second aspect is origin of life theories. Since the Earth was not that hospitable at life's origin, whatever came first had to possess these same abilities for survival. The great oxygenation event occurred much later and was a much easier way to create energy as we measure it in calories of heat. Of course antioxidants had to be added to control the oxygenation process, all part of good design. My view is always opposite Darwin. He emphasized survival to get rid of God. In my view God provides survival. We are diametrically opposite. There is no middle ground.

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1497 views

New, never seen before bacteria our immune system does not recognize:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-deep-sea-microbes-invisible-human.html

"To deep-sea bacteria, humans are Martians, and vice versa. The novel bacteria from the deep sea that we collected and tested would never have had the natural opportunity to interact with humans—since they live thousands of meters below the surface. So, we asked the questions, what would happen when organisms from these distinct ecosystems interact? Fast-forward five years, thousands of plates poured, and an immeasurable number of conversations, we have evidence that the immune system of mammals has the ability to detect microbial bacteria from our home habitat, not habitats that are foreign like the deep ocean. The inability of immune receptors to detect most bacteria from a different ecosystem suggests that pattern recognition strategies may be defined locally, not globally.

"All bacteria cells have an outer coating. Lipopolysaccharide, or LPS, is the outermost layer of the bacterial membrane. This outermost layer is what allows other organisms to recognize it. LPS receptors of human cells, mice and horseshoe crab were unable to detect 80% of deep-sea bacteria examined. Now that we know this, there is a pressing need to learn more about host-microbe interactions in every ecosystem, as new discoveries may be made in each habitat.

***

"The bacteria are collected from the deep sea, using a tethered SUV-sized robot called the SuBastian controlled from the surface. The robot collected corals, slurped sediment, and sucked up water that was then analyzed at our labs back in Massachusetts. We were out [at sea] culturing the bacteria, but no one was expecting immunosilence."

Comment: Our innate immune system we are born with carries an inheritance from the bugs our ancestors met over the hundreds of thousands of years. Only now do we have technology to reach these new deep sea regions. The results are not surprising. It also explains a point made before. Many different preceding hominins helped produced the effective immune system we now have against the bugs we can meet in everyday living.

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1548 views

Giant single-celled types:

http://oceans.nautil.us/feature/692/the-largest-cells-on-earth?mc_cid=e163db3aa8&mc...

"The seafloor comes into view, and there they are. A garden made of giant cells.

These single-celled organisms, called xenophyophores, can grow as large as basketballs. Xenophyophores growing on the sediment can resemble carnations, roses, or lattices, and like corals in shallow water, their bodies create unique habitat in the deep sea. Though surveys are difficult to conduct at the depths where they live and much of the abyssal plains have not been explored, we do know that xenophyophore meadows may cover large areas and that they inhabit the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Xenophyophores “represent a little known element of marine biodiversity,” said Lisa Levin, a marine ecologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

***

"Each massive cell forms a house made from the sediment around it; some extend long searching filaments, like hairs, to find and grab the best particles for construction, and eschew those that are too large or small. Despite being only a single cell, each will assemble these materials into elaborate masonry.

"With their houses in order, many xenophyophores feed on the marine snow that sinks from the world above, digesting these old remains in their viscous interior before exuding waste that resembles animal feces, though a single cell isn’t supposed to merit that term. When scientists led by ecologist Andrew Gooday of the University of Southampton used CT-scanning to peer into xenophyophore shells and visualize bodies within, they found that each cell spreads within its casing like the branches of a tree, reaching into every corner but with room to spare.

"With the elaborate structure of these shells, and the waste they produce, each cell creates a miniature world. In the late 1980s, when Levin first studied xenophyophores as a hobby and few other scientists paid much attention to them at all, she found that more than 15 major animal groups, including sponges, mollusks, crustaceans, and polychaete worms, inhabit these single-cell castles, with some cells hosting more than 100 individual animals. Some are nourished by their host’s waste. "They function like apartment houses for animals," said Levin. In 2019, she and fellow Scripps biologist Greg Rouse discovered a whole new group of animals that may rely on xenophyophores: fish.

***

"In fact, xenophyophores are so important to deep sea biodiversity that they’re among the organisms designated by the United Nations as indicators of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems where communities are particularly sensitive to disturbance. When those indicators were evaluated according to their uniqueness and function and fragility, xenophyophores ranked beside deep-sea corals. “Most are very fragile and turn into a pile of sediments if not handled carefully,” Levin said They are especially vulnerable to disruption.

***

"One study of xenophyophores in the Atlantic found them to be quick-growing, increasing in volume severalfold over a period of eight months, but it may not be reasonable to extrapolate from those species to xenophyophores in the Clarion-Clipperton. Just as plants like bamboo and oak grow at different rates, the same may be true for these giant cells. Scientists also know very little about xenophyophore reproduction, their ability to disperse, or how long it may take them to repopulate a mined area. That, of course, only applies to xenophyophores who don't live on the nodules themselves, which will take tens of millions of years to form anew.

***

"...we do know that xenophyophores live in a world unlike any other humanity has encountered. These are cells as large as human fists, that create habitat for other species that compare to corals in their importance to their ecosystems. “I want people to learn to care about the deep sea, and how wonderful and weird it is, and phenomenally unusual,” said Levin. Xenophyophores, she said, are iconic. "

Comment: Weird and wonderful. Obviously part of a sea-floor ecosystem that is vital.

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1506 views

At extreme temperatures of 120 degrees C:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2305667-microbes-survive-deep-below-the-seafloor-a...

"Living microbes have been found in sediments 1.2 kilometres below the seafloor, where the temperature reaches 120°C. The discovery shows that life in seafloor sediments can survive higher temperatures than previously thought and is therefore present at greater depths than we realised.

***

"Although these experiments couldn’t be done at temperatures above 95°C on the ship, the fact that some of these microbes came from sediments naturally heated to 120°C shows that they do survive at this temperature, says Treude.

***

"At 120°C, the heat is doing a lot of damage to cells, so microbes may need high metabolisms to generate enough energy to repair this damage. It is a race to stay alive, says Treude.

"It isn’t clear what these heat-loving, or thermophilic, microbes are, as the team was unable to sequence their DNA. Nor is it clear how they came to be in the sediments, given that this would have been a very cold environment for a long time after the sediments that the samples came from were first deposited.

"However, a few thermophilic microbes would have been present when the sediments were deposited, and they may have somehow clung on until temperatures began to rise due to being buried under more material, says team member Felix Beulig at Aarhus University in Denmark.

“'We always find a fraction of thermophiles in sediments, even Arctic sediments,” says Beulig.

"As the temperatures rose, all the microbes that weren’t tolerant of heat would gradually have died off, says team member Florian Schubert at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. “The microbes that cannot adapt, they just die,” he says.

"Patrick Forterre at the Pasteur Institute in Paris says that while there are reliable results showing microbe growth at 106°C, nobody has been able to replicate the two lab studies claiming growth at 122°C. “It’s very difficult to determine the upper temperature limit,” he says.

"He is therefore sceptical of the idea of microbes living normally at 120°C, but he does think it is possible that they could somehow survive and became active again at lower temperatures."

Comment: The ability to be alive anywhere is amazing.

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932 views

On a dormant volcano:

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/mouse-found-over-6700-meters-up-a-volcano...

"The world's highest-dwelling mammal is not a hardy goat nor a red-blooded big cat, but a tiny species of rodent adorably called the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse.

"Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) have confirmed this tiny mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) is the world’s highest-dwelling mammal after catching a live specimen at an altitude of 6,739 meters (over 22,100 feet).

"The mighty mouse was first spotted in 2013 when mountaineering researchers filmed a small rodent dart across the rocky landscape of Llullaillaco, a dormant volcano on the western edge of the Andes Mountains along the border of Argentina and Chile. In a recent trapping expedition in February 2020, the team returned to Llullaillaco and managed to catch a few live specimens of the mountaineering mice at altitudes over 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).

“'I was a bit dazed and disoriented when I first reached the subject. My friend and climbing partner, Mario Perez Mamani, is the one who spotted the mouse, and it took me a while to process what he was telling me,” lead study co-author Jay Storz, associate professor at UNL's School of Biological Sciences, told IFLScience.

“'I was still just trying to catch my breath!”

"The highest specimen was caught on the summit of Llullaillaco at a dizzying altitude of 6,739 meters (over 22,100 feet). The researchers say their discovery clearly shows the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse is a record-breaking animal: the highest-dwelling mammal ever recorded. While there have been reported sightings of large-eared pikas, a small hamster-like mammal, living at close to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) in the Himalayas, there has never been live evidence of mammals permanently dwelling at such an altitude.

***

"Conditions on the upper peaks of Llullaillaco are incredibly harsh. Not only does the species have to bare sub-zero temperatures as low as -65°C (-75°F), but they also have to deal with the desperately low oxygen levels – around 45 percent less oxygen than at sea-level – found at this altitude. Food is also extremely sparse here since this altitude is well above the tree line, meaning tree life and vegetation is nonexistent. The researchers suspect the mice might be eating a diet of insects and lichen, though this is based on assumptions and suspicion rather than observed evidence."

Comment: Well, if we can climb up there so can mice. But making a living there is another issue. Not just bacteria in harsh places.

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891 views

Life can live anywhere:

https://www.sciencealert.com/life-has-been-found-in-a-low-oxygen-super-salty-sub-zero-a...

"Fed by waters that pass through 600 meters (1,970 ft) of permafrost, the sub-zero, salty, virtually oxygen-free Lost Hammer Spring in the Canadian Arctic is one of the harshest places on Earth. Even here, however, life finds a way.

'Scientists have found microbes thriving in the briny water that seeps up from deep below the permafrost –

***

"From deep below the permafrost, water with less than one part per million of dissolved oxygen, around 24 percent salinity and at temperatures around minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) seeps up to the surface. Imagine trying to live in that. You couldn't, not without significant help.

"But microbes have been found living in some pretty crazy places. Given its similarity to the maybe-lakes on Mars, microbiologist Elisse Magnuson of McGill University in Canada and her colleagues wanted to see if Lost Hammer Spring might be one of them. Although it wasn't easy.

***

"Most of the microbes they found were entirely new to science and had specific adaptations to allow them not just to live, but thrive, in a place like Lost Hammer Spring.

"'The microbes we found and described at Lost Hammer Spring are surprising, because, unlike other microorganisms, they don't depend on organic material or oxygen to live," said microbiologist Lyle Whyte of McGill University.

"'Instead, they survive by eating and breathing simple inorganic compounds such as methane, sulfides, sulfate, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, all of which are found on Mars. (my bold)

"'They can also fix carbon dioxide and nitrogen gasses from the atmosphere, all of which makes them highly adapted to both surviving and thriving in very extreme environments on Earth and beyond."

"This kind of metabolism is known as chemolithotrophic, and has only been found in microbial organisms, at least here on Earth, and usually in pretty extreme environments. So if there is life on Mars with a similar survival strategy, it's likely, according to what we know of both Earth and Mars, to be very small indeed."

Comment: life started during the nasty Hadean period on Earth. It had to be designed to be so tough.

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850 views

New pools found:

https://www.livescience.com/new-brine-pools-found-in-red-sea?utm_campaign=368B3745-DDE0...

Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds.

Deep-sea brine pools are extraordinarily salty or "hypersaline" lakes that form on the seafloor. They are among the most extreme environments on Earth, yet despite their exotic chemistry and complete lack of oxygen, these rare pools teem with life and may offer insights on how life on Earth began — and how life could evolve and thrive on water-rich worlds other than our own.

"Our current understanding is that life originated on Earth in the deep sea, almost certainly in anoxic — without oxygen — conditions," study lead author Sam Purkis, a professor and chair of the Department of Marine Geosciences at the University of Miami, told Live Science. "Deep-sea brine pools are a great analog for the early Earth and, despite being devoid of oxygen and hypersaline, are teeming with a rich community of so-called 'extremophile' microbes. Studying this community hence allows a glimpse into the sort of conditions where life first appeared on our planet, and might guide the search for life on other 'water worlds' in our solar system and beyond."

***

"The Red Sea possesses the highest known number of deep-sea brine pools. These are thought to arise from dissolving pockets of minerals deposited during the Miocene epoch (about 23 million to 5.3 million years ago) when the sea level in the region was lower than it is today.

"Until now, all known deep-sea brine pools in the Red Sea were located at least 15.5 miles (25 km) offshore. Now, scientists have discovered the first such pools in the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern pocket of the Red Sea, where the submerged salty lakes lie just 1.25 miles (2 km) from shore.

***

"'At this great depth, there is ordinarily not much life on the seabed," Purkis said. "However, the brine pools are a rich oasis of life. Thick carpets of microbes support a diverse suite of animals."

"Most interesting among those "were the fish, shrimp and eels that appear to use the brine to hunt," Purkis said. The brine is devoid of oxygen, so "any animal that strays into the brine is immediately stunned or killed," he explained. The predators that lurk near the brine "feed on the unlucky," he noted."

Comment: as usual living forms can adapt to any sort of extreme conditions. Just another great example of a specialized ecosystem.

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768 views

Life without oxygen:

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/treasure-hunt-microbes-chile-ata...

"The famously dry region has long been dismissed as a mostly lifeless wasteland, good for little more than mining of minerals and precious metals. To these researchers, however, it’s a microbial gold mine worthy of protection.

***

"Gómez-Silva is part of a small but strong contingency of scientists searching for living microbes here in the world’s oldest desert, a place that’s been dry since the late Jurassic dinosaurs roamed Earth some 150 million years ago. Anything trying to survive here has a host of challenges to contend with beyond the lack of water: intense solar radiation, high concentrations of noxious chemicals and key nutrients in scarce supply. Yet even so, unusual and tiny things do grow, and researchers like Gómez-Silva say that scientists have a lot to learn from them.

***

"Without water, little should survive: Cells shrivel, proteins disintegrate and cellular components can’t move about. The atmosphere at the desert’s high altitudes does little to block the sun’s damaging rays. And the lack of flowing water leaves precious metals in place for mining companies, but means distribution of nutrients through the ecosystem is limited, as is the dilution of toxic compounds. Where water bodies do exist in the desert — often in the form of seasonal basins fed by subterranean rivers — they frequently have high concentrations of salts, metals and elements, including arsenic, that are toxic to many cells. Desert plants and animals that manage to make it in the region typically cling to the desert’s outskirts or to scattered fog oases, which are periodically quenched by dense marine fogs called camanchacas.

***

"Dorador studies microbial mats that thrive beneath the crust of the Atacama salars, or salt flats, that are sometimes submerged under a layer of brine. A slice through one of these mats yields what might be taken for an alien serving of gelatinous lasagna. Inside the pasta-dish-gone-wrong, which can grow to several centimeters thick and is held together in part by cell-exuded goo, live millions of microorganisms of various types. The species cluster together into distinct, colorful layers: Purple streaks often represent bacteria that can avoid oxygen; bright green stripes might indicate ones that produce it. Other colors hint at cells that can capture nitrogen from their surroundings, produce foul-smelling sulfur, or leak methane or carbon dioxide into the air.

***

"They are also a glimpse into the past, as this layered community looks very much like what scientists believe were the earliest ecosystems to come about on Earth. As they grow, some microbial mats form mounds of layered sediment that can be left behind as lithified fossils, called stromatolites. The oldest of these stromatolites date back to 3.7 billion years, when Earth’s atmosphere was devoid of oxygen. Thus, living mats, still found in extreme environments the world over, are of great interest to researchers trying to piece together the puzzle of how life as we know it today came to be. (my bold)

***

"Then, on a 2012 trip with Argentinian and Chilean colleagues, Visscher found what he was looking for in a vibrant purple microbial mat thriving below the surface of the Atacama’s La Brava, a hypersaline lake more than 7,500 feet above sea level. Unlike previously studied microbial mats, Visscher couldn’t detect oxygen in the La Brava mats or the waters around them then nor during several subsequent visits at different times of the year. Thus they provide an ideal natural laboratory, he says, and have lent weight to earlier theories about the importance of arsenic for early life.

“'I had been looking for well over 30 years to find the right analog,” he says. “This bright purple microbial mat may have been something that was on Earth very early on — 2.8 to 3 billion years ago.”

***

"Other microbes take an active role in seeking out water. In 2020, a group of scientists from the United States described in PNAS a bacterium living within gypsum rocks that secreted a substance to dissolve the minerals around it, releasing individual water molecules sequestered inside the rock.

“"They’re almost like miners … digging for water,” says David Kisailus, a chemical and environmental engineer at the University of California, Irvine, and one of the study’s authors. “They can actually search out and find the water and extract the water from these rocks.'”

Comment: An amazing group with very inventive ways of living. An enormous article filled with amazing descriptions of very strange bugs.

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837 views

A difficult study:

https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-blooms-of-microscopic-life-seem-to-be-thriving-benea...

"The Southern Ocean's vast shelves of floating ice appear to hide sprawling blooms of phytoplankton, a discovery that could significantly change our understanding of Antarctica's marine ecosystem and how it might be impacted by climate change.

"Key to phytoplankton growth is photosynthesis, and key to photosynthesis is sunlight – and so up to this point experts didn't think there was much opportunity for the plankton to thrive in the dark conditions under Antarctic ice shelves.

"However, there have been recent discoveries of phytoplankton blooms under Arctic ice, created as the glaciers become more fragmented, more seasonal, thinner, and more susceptible to melting water. That prompted researchers to take a fresh look at Antarctica.

"Field work was carried out using floating measuring instruments, with the collected data combined with satellite data of sea ice coverage and outputs from climate models to estimate the amount of phytoplankton that might extend beneath the ice, hidden from view.

***

"As phytoplankton communities contain significant quantities of tiny algae, they typically represent the very bottom of the food chain in the ocean – variations in their availability and coverage can have a significant effect on the rest of the aquatic life in the area."

Comment: the finding is not a surprise, considering all the harsh places life is found.

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761 views

A study of them:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230206130626.htm

"A world first study reverses the idea that the bulk of life in the ocean is fuelled by photosynthesis via sunshine, revealing that many ocean microbes in fact get their energy from hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

"It has always been a mystery as to how microbes growing in deepest parts of the sea survive, with no sunlight. A new study, from researchers at the Monash University published in the journal Nature Microbiology, shows that a distinct process called chemosynthesis -- growth using inorganic compounds -- fuels microbes in these darkest depths.

"The five-year study, led by Dr Rachael Lappan and Professor Chris Greening from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, reveals that two common gases -- hydrogen and carbon monoxide -- serve as the fuel for trillions of microbes in the ocean from the tropics to the poles.

***

"'We found the genes that enable hydrogen consumption across eight distantly related types of microbes, known as phyla, and this survival strategy becomes more common the deeper they live."

"For this project, the researchers were inspired by their previous work on soil bacteria. Professor Greening and colleagues have previously showed most soil bacteria can live by consuming hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the atmosphere.

"'The surface layers of the world's oceans generally contain high levels of dissolved hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases due to various geological and biological processes. So it made sense that oceanic bacteria used the same gases as their terrestrial cousins," Dr Lappan said.

"These findings provide insights into how life evolved. Professor Greening concludes that "The first life probably emerged in deep-sea vents using hydrogen, not sunlight, as the energy source. It's incredible that, 3.7 billion years later, so many microbes in the oceans are still using this high-energy gas and we've completely overlooked this until now.'"

Comment: Living organisms can find many different ways to live. Adverse climates can be conqured by living organisms. It explains why God does not have to control all climates as dhw worries. God's supreme design of living organisms takes care of it.

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728 views

Come back to life in Spring melts:

https://www.sciencealert.com/glaciers-are-not-devoid-of-life-tons-of-microbes-hide-with...

"Glaciers in the Arctic are not nearly as devoid of life as they might appear at first sight.

"In fact, carpets of ice and snow in Greenland and Iceland are practically crawling with microscopic life forms.

"Like seasonal zombies, many of these organisms lie dormant in winter, waking from their frozen slumber only with the summer melt.

"'A small puddle of meltwater on a glacier can easily have 4,000 different species living in it," says microbiologist Alexandre Anesio from Aarhus University in Sweden.

"'They live on bacteria, algae, viruses, and microscopic fungi. It's a whole ecosystem that we never knew existed until recently."

"When researchers tested the ice and snow at two glaciers in the mid-to-late summer, one in Iceland and the other in Greenland, more than half the bacteria they found were active.

"The rest were dormant or dead.

"Within just a day of thawing, however, some of those dormant microbes regained the ability to read genes and produce amino acid building blocks – like the stiff cogs of a machine finally turning after six months of stillness.

"The findings suggest microbial communities on snow and ice can rapidly respond to changes in ice melt.

***

"'Crucially, our results suggest that glacial microorganisms are able to respond to short melt-events occurring on the timescale of hours to days – which is sufficiently short that periodic melting on glacier surfaces potentially impacts the functioning of glacial ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles," scientists write.

"'Enhanced winter warming is predicted to become more prevalent as a result of future climate change and could therefore bring about ecological changes to glaciers.'"

Comment: as usual extremophiles prove life can be anywhere it wants to be.

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631 views

Using a trap system:

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-a-whole-new-ecosystem-hiding-beneath-earth...

"Underneath the seafloor of this well-studied site, the international team of researchers found veins of subsurface fluids swimming with life that has never been seen before.

"It's a whole new world we didn't know existed.

"'On land we have long known of animals living in cavities underground, and in the ocean of animals living in sand and mud, but for the first time, scientists have looked for animals beneath hydrothermal vents," says the institute's executive director, Jyotika Virmani.

"'This truly remarkable discovery of a new ecosystem, hidden beneath another ecosystem, provides fresh evidence that life exists in incredible places."

***

"Stripping back the seafloor's shell has now revealed a colorful ecosystem of worms, snails, and chemosynthetic bacteria, which don't rely on sunlight but on minerals for energy.

***

"'Two dynamic vent habitats exist. Vent animals above and below the surface thrive together in unison, depending on vent fluid from below and oxygen in the seawater from above."

***

"...researchers used a remotely operated vehicle, called SuBastian, to clear a square of ocean floor on the East Pacific Rise off Central America, roughly 2,500 meters deep. The team then glued a mesh box over the top of this now lifeless site.

"When they removed the box a few days later, researchers found new animals had colonized the area. They must have arrived there from beneath the seafloor's many cracks and fissures.

***

"'The discoveries made on each Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition reinforce the urgency of fully exploring our ocean so we know what exists in the deep sea," says Wendy Schmidt, president and co-founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

"'The discovery of new creatures, landscapes, and now, an entirely new ecosystem underscores just how much we have yet to discover about our Ocean–and how important it is to protect what we don't yet know or understand.'"

Comment: more evidence li fe can appear anywhere on Earth. I view God built an incubator.

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594 views

Use special enzyme pumps to avoid freezing:

https://www.sciencealert.com/antarctic-octopuses-survive-in-earths-coldest-ocean-withou...

"Oddball octopuses of the genus Pareledone were recently found to use their three hearts to pump a special type of blue blood around their bodies, supplying oxygen to tissues even in super-cold environments like Antarctica.

"Similar to many other species that live in permanently frigid water, these octopuses also appear to have 'cold-adapted' enzymes, according to an investigation led by the Marine Biological Laboratory in the US.

"Such proteins play a key role in a slew of biochemical reactions. In Antarctic creatures, their unique flexibility allows them to function even at lower temperatures, whereas enzymes from more temperate octopuses slow down 25 percent in the face of similar extremes.

"Soluble enzymes – like those that break down food in our gut – can adapt more easily to different temperatures because of the particular reactions they're involved in. But not all enzymes in the body can afford to be this flexible. Some are smooshed into cell membranes, where their 'working conditions' are far more rigid.

"These protein 'pumps' or channels carry important ions into and out of the cell, creating gradients that allow for the propagation of energy.

***

"They created two models: one based on the sodium-potassium pump enzyme found in Antarctic octopuses (Pareledone) and the other based on the same pump found in a temperate species called the two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculatus).

"The authors picked this enzyme because it exports three sodium ions and imports two potassium ions at the cost of one molecule of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the source of a cell's energy. This exchange is essential for cell excitability and the transport of solutes.

"'Because of its central importance, the [sodium-potassium pump] should be under strong selection to operate efficiently in different thermal environments," the authors explain.

"Just as the team suspected, the Antarctic pump performed better at −1.8 °C than the temperate pump. It was less intrinsically sensitive to the cold.

"The building blocks, or amino acids, that form the Antarctic pump differed slightly from those in the temperate octopus species.

"In total, the researchers counted 12 locations on the Antarctic amino acid sequence where a mutation seemed to confer resistance to cold.

"By adding in these mutations one at a time to a model, the researchers figured out that three mutations in particular worked together to provide most of the pump's cold resistance.

"What's more, most of these mutations were positioned at the interface between the pump and the rest of the cell membrane.

"One mutation, at the location L314V, had the greatest effect of the lot. Without it, the pump no longer worked at near-freezing temperatures.

"Researchers will need to study the details behind this mutation further, but it could be that this different amino acid at this specific location somehow gives the pump extra wiggle room within the cell membrane."

Comment: Based on the research this ability developed bit by bit as mutations appeared. Another method is the use of antifreeze molecules by some fish.

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At extreme environments:

https://www.sciencealert.com/tiny-mice-discovered-at-altitudes-thought-inhabitable-for-...

"Not much lives in the Puna de Atacama, a frigid moonscape high in the Andes with violent winds, meager oxygen, and virtually no water.

"For some reason, though, mountaineering mice keep venturing to the summits of 6,000-meter (20,000-foot) volcanoes in this high desert plateau and surviving up there.

***

"After Storz and his colleagues happened across a mouse mummy atop Volcán Salín, they began a systematic search there and on other local peaks. They've searched 21 volcanic summits so far, they report, and found 13 mouse remains on several taller than 6,000 meters.

"'These are basically freeze-dried, mummified mice," Storz says.

"On top of that, Storz and a colleague also captured a live leaf-eared mouse in 2020 on the peak of Llullaillaco, a 6,700-meter-high volcano near the border between Chile and Argentina, raising new questions about the origins of all those mummies.

"It was the first time any mammal had been found living at such a high altitude, the researchers note, but it wouldn't be the last. They ended up capturing more live specimens on these peaks, and conducting tests on some of the mummies to shed light on their backstories.

"Analysis suggests eight mouse mummies from Salín and one from Copiapó died within the last several decades, likely sometime after 1955, the study's authors report.

"Four mummies from Púlar could be older, having died up to 350 years ago, but that was still a century after Spanish invaders brought down the Inca Empire.

"'It now seems more and more clear that the mice got there of their own accord," Storz says.

***

"The researchers were curious if the genomes of mountaintop mice would show they comprised a distinct subpopulation, having diverged from known populations of leaf-eared mice at lower elevations.

"'Our genomic data indicate no: that the mice from the summits, and those from the flanks or the base of the volcanoes in the surrounding desert terrain, are all one big happy family," Storz says.

"Two pairs of mouse mummies were closely related, the study found, suggesting they were either siblings or parents with offspring.

"Along with other clues – like the equal ratio of male and female mummies, plus the presence of live mice and mouse burrows – the researchers say the evidence indicates these mice are not tourists, but residents who found a way to survive in this Mars-like environment.

"The Puna de Atacama is so Mars-like that NASA has visited the plateau to simulate the conditions on the red planet, the researchers note.

"'Even at the base of the volcanoes, the mice are living in an extreme, Martian environment. And then, on the summits of the volcanoes, it's even more so. It feels like outer space," Storz says.

***

'They're also still trying to understand not just how, but why the mice are living up there. They could be fleeing predators at lower elevations, for example, but would that safety really be worth the dangers of freezing, starving, and dehydration?

"'Certainly, if you're hunkering down on top of a 6,000-meter volcano, you're at least safe from [predators]," Storz says. "You just have other things to worry about.'"

Comment: gradual adaptation is the only reasonable answer.

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In the Atlantic seen by deep-diving vessels:

https://www.sciencealert.com/lost-city-deep-in-the-ocean-is-unlike-anything-weve-ever-s...

"Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom.

"Their creamy carbonate walls and columns appear ghostly blue in the light of a remotely operated vehicle sent to explore.

"They range in height from tiny stacks the size of toadstools to a grand monolith standing 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) tall. This is the Lost City.

"Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found.

"For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean.

"In the cracks and crevices of the field's vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen.

"Chimneys spewing gases as hot as 40 °C (104 °F) are home to an abundance of snails and crustaceans. Larger animals such as crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, and eels are rare, but still present.

"Despite the extreme nature of the environment, it appears to be teeming with life, and researchers think it's worth our attention and protection.

"While other hydrothermal fields like this one probably exist elsewhere in the world's oceans, this is the only one remotely operated vehicles have been able to find thus far.

The hydrocarbons produced by the Lost City's vents were not formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide or sunlight, but by chemical reactions on the deep seafloor.

***

"Unlike underwater volcanic vents called black smokers, which have also been named as a possible first habitat, the Lost City's ecosystem doesn't depend on the heat of magma.

"Black smokers produce mostly iron- and sulfur-rich minerals, whereas the Lost City's chimneys produce up to 100 times more hydrogen and methane.

"The calcite vents of the Lost City are also much, much larger than black smokers, which suggests they've been active for longer.

"The tallest of the monoliths is named Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea, and it stretches more than 60 meters high.

"Just northeast of the tower, meanwhile, is a cliffside with short bursts of activity. Researchers at the University of Washington describe the vents here as 'weeping' with fluid to produce "clusters of delicate, multi-pronged carbonate growths that extend outward like the fingers of upturned hands".

"Unfortunately, scientists aren't the only ones beckoned by that unusual terrain.

"In 2018, it was announced that Poland had won the rights to mine the deep sea around The Lost City. While there are no precious resources to be dredged up in the actual thermal field itself, the destruction of the city's surroundings could have unintended consequences.

"Any plumes or discharges, triggered by the mining, could easily wash over the remarkable habitat, scientists warn.

"Some experts are therefore calling for the Lost City to be listed as a World Heritage site, to protect the natural wonder before it's too late.

"For tens of thousands of years, the Lost City has stood as a testament to the enduring force of life.

"It would be just like us to ruin it."

Comment: yes, leave it pristine. Be sure to see the photos. Magnificent.

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One in South Dakota:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/subterranean-microbial-dark-matter-reveals-a...

"Devoid of light and deprived of nutrients, the depths of Earth might seem too barren to bother scouring for signs of life. But subterranean microbial organisms actually make up an enormous part of our planet’s biosphere. They are second only to plants in terms of total estimated biomass.

"Now an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota is allowing the deepest look yet into this secret world of buried biodiversity. In new research published in the journal Environmental Microbiology, a genetic analysis of the mine’s microbes from as deep as 1.5 kilometers beneath the surface reveals a schism in survival strategies. Some microbes have big, bulky genomes that prep them to digest any nutrient that might come their way. Others are so genetically streamlined that they can’t even make some of life’s fundamental building blocks and instead rely on scavenging them or living symbiotically with other species.

“'It was just cool to find that total dichotomy in survival strategy,” says Lily Momper, a consultant at the environmental and engineering firm Exponent and the paper’s first author. Similar results have been seen at the few other deep microbe observation sites around the world, Momper says. “We think this is probably a strategy in the deep subsurface in general,” she adds.

***

"The Deep Mine Microbial Observatory, a network of deep boreholes situated in what was once the Homestake gold mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is one of the few places on Earth where researchers can study these deep communities over long periods of time. “There are very few such deep boreholes,” Anantharaman says.

"The mine, which closed in 2002, penetrates 2,438 meters deep. Since 2007 it’s been a multidisciplinary science lab called the Sanford Underground Research Facility, and it is now used primarily by physicists who are studying neutrinos and searching for dark matter particles. But there is another type of “dark matter” down there, Osburn says: microbes that have never been cultured in a lab. They are only known from their genetic detritus, snippets and parcels of DNA that researchers can sequence en masse from filtered groundwater and painstakingly reconstruct. Retrieving these precious samples requires descending deep into the mine in a wood-and-metal elevator cage.

***

"This method revealed genomes that were never seen before, indicating a plethora of new species hiding in the former gold mine’s depths. The researchers also found a large amount of diversity among the organisms. “The thing that popped out at us immediately is that they’re doing a lot,” Osburn says. “The metabolic capacity of these organisms is wide, so there’s huge potential for nitrogen and sulfur and metal cycling all over.”

"Some of the organisms were minimalists, with genes for only a few very specific metabolic processes. These weren’t surprising to see in a nutrient-poor place such as the subsurface, Anantharaman says, because there is a metabolic burden associated with maintaining a big, energy-hungry genome. More surprising, he says, was the discovery of a second class of maximalist organisms. These organisms had the ability to metabolize chemicals that were not found in their environment.

"This overpreparation is surprising because there is an energy cost to maintaining so many genes for so many metabolic abilities, Osburn says. But the “prepper” nature of these microbes may be an advantage in the subsurface. “Fractures open; fractures close; things mineralize,” she says. “Many of these organisms are just prepared for whatever energy source comes along.”

***

"One common pattern, though, is that most sites host a wide range of life. Osburn and her team are now looking at sequencing not just DNA but RNA, the molecular go-between for genes and proteins. Studying microbial RNA can reveal not just what microbes can do, Osburn says, but what they are doing at a given moment. Another current project is analyzing subsurface biofilms—stable accumulations of microbes that are protected by slimy excretions, which we more typically encounter as scummy deposits in toilets and kitchen sinks. Biofilms are hard to study, Osburn says, but the researchers got lucky: They set up a long-term filtration system in a mine borehole in December 2019 and planned to collect it three to six months later. Instead COVID hit, and the filtration system sat for four years before the team could get back to check on it. Miraculously, it was intact."

Comment: all of these studies tell us the same thing: the form of life God created is tough enough to live anywhere on Earth. One wonders was first life this tough to start it all.

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Water bears are everywhere:

https://www.sciencealert.com/tardigrade-genes-reveal-a-strange-history-of-their-crazy-s...

"Tardigrades stand apart from much of the animal kingdom due to their extreme durability, which famously helps the tiny creatures survive being boiled, frozen, irradiated, and fired from a gun, among other indignities.

***

"In a new study, researchers shed a little more light on this surprisingly complex history, suggesting ancient tardigrades made the transition from marine to terrestrial environments twice, followed by "numerous independent adaptations to cope with aridity" on land.

"Today, tardigrades exist all over the planet, thriving in a wide range of environments at sea and on land, from deep ocean mud and Antarctic rocks to mountains, rainforests, and gardens.

"Also known as 'water bears' and 'moss piglets,' tardigrades have become renowned as some of the most resilient animals known to science, even demonstrating an ability to survive in the vacuum of space.

"Key to many of their feats of survival is anhydrobiosis, a dormant state in which tardigrades can reversibly halt their metabolism, helping them withstand almost complete desiccation.

"Previous research has identified multiple gene families that are unique to tardigrades and show an association with extreme metabolic shutdown in response to lack of water, known as anhydrobiosis, including several related to heat-soluble proteins, along with some stress-resistance genes that also exist in other animals.

"Fleming and his colleagues say they were surprised by how many independent duplications they found in these gene families, suggesting the evolution of genes related to anhydrobiosis was significantly more complicated than previously thought.

"'What we found was far more exciting: a complex network of independent gains and losses that does not necessarily correlate to modern terrestrial species ecologies," Fleming says.

***

"Based on the distribution of gene families across the two major tardigrade classes, the researchers believe there were two separate transitions from marine to terrestrial habitats in tardigrades' history, once in the ancestor of eutardigrades and once among heterotardigrades.

"While this study helps advance our knowledge about the history of anhydrobiosis in tardigrades, there is still a lot we don't understand, the researchers say. Clarity is lacking partly due to meager or nonexistent data from some key tardigrade lineages, they add.

"'We unfortunately have no representatives from several important families, such as the Isohypsibiidae, and this does limit how firmly we can stand by our conclusions," Fleming says. "With more freshwater and marine tardigrade samples, we will be better able to appreciate the adaptations of terrestrial members of the group.'"

Comment: we surely don't know much about them, how they evolved and how do they fit into an ecosystem? Hopefully we will find out more.

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Extreme extremophiles (Introduction)

Extreme extremophiles

Extreme extremophiles

Extreme extremophiles: undersea Japanese shale

Extreme extremophiles: survival methods

Extreme extremophiles: survival methods

Extreme extremophiles: new extremes

Extreme extremophiles: new extremes

Extreme extremophiles: new extremes

Extreme extremophiles: new extremes

Extreme extremophiles: new extremes

Extreme extremophiles: antarctic midges

Extreme extremophiles: more Mono Lake Nematodes

Extreme extremophiles: living in dry Atacama desert

Extreme extremophiles: from deep sea cores

Extreme extremophiles: from deep sea cores

Extreme extremophiles: from deep sea cores

Extreme extremophiles: from deep sea cores

Extreme extremophiles: antarctic bacteria live on air

Extreme extremophiles: from ocean cores

Extreme extremophiles: deep under Antarctic ice

Extreme extremophiles: deep under Antarctic ice

Extreme extremophiles: sea floor cores find their food

Extreme extremophiles: from the very deep sea

Extreme extremophiles: more novel forms in the very deep sea

Extreme extremophiles: more novel forms in the very deep sea

Extreme extremophiles: mice at 22,000 feet!

Extreme extremophiles: under ice with low oxygen

Extreme extremophiles: in brine pools

Extreme extremophiles: in Chile's Atacama Desert

Extreme extremophiles: phytoplankton under Antarctic ice

Extreme extremophiles: living in deep ocean without light

Extreme extremophiles: survivors on glaciers

Extreme extremophiles: ecosystem beneath ocean floor

Extreme extremophiles: antarctica octopuses

Extreme extremophiles: mice on top volcanoes

Extreme extremophiles: living in deep city, vent 'cities'

Extreme extremophiles: living in deep Earth mines:

Extreme extremophiles: tardigrades