Extreme extremophiles: undersea Japanese shale (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, July 25, 2015, 14:59 (3410 days ago) @ David Turell

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?