I have no idea what if anything this might mean, but it would be interesting to find out what these bacteria consume and respire. It just goes to show you that we don’t yet know everything about the atmosphere. – Anthony
From Slashdot h/t to James Stein
Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on earth and highly resistant to ultraviolet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by some Indian scientists.
These bacteria, which do not match any species on earth, were found in samples collected through a balloon sent up to the stratosphere in April 2005. The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing 16 evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes. Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in the liquid neon to create a ‘cryopump effect.’ These cylinders after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 to 41 km were parachuted down and safely retrieved, it said.”
Here’s the Indian Space Research Organisation’s press release on the discovery.
From it:
In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on 16S RNA gene sequence, showed greater than 98% similarity with reported known species on earth. Three bacterial colonies, namely, PVAS-1, B3 W22 and B8 W22 were, however, totally new species. All the three newly identified species had significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Of the above, PVAS-1, identified as a member of the genus Janibacter, has been named Janibacter hoylei. sp. nov. The second new species B3 W22 was named as Bacillus isronensis sp.nov. and the third new species B8 W22 as Bacillus aryabhata.
The precautionary measures and controls operating in this experiment inspire confidence that these species were picked up in the stratosphere. While the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the work in our quest to explore the origin of life.
From WIRED Science:
One species was dubbed Janibacter hoylei, a reference to astronomer Fred Hoyle, who believed that Earth’s first life came from space. In a press release, the agency noted that the bugs “are not found on Earth” and that “the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of the microorganisms” — implying, of course, that they might be alien in origin.
Not so fast, said University of Washington astrobiologist John Baross.
“It is extremely unlikely that these organisms are extraterrestrial,” wrote Baross in an email, “and they are likely to originate from soil on Earth.”
Adds an anonymous Slashdot reader: “This paper in International Journal of Astrobiology [PDF] speculates how microorganisms reach the stratosphere.
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Could it be that jet-planes carried them there?
Gary Turner (23:56:25)
Been there, Gary… I keep forgetting the anchor reference and its close, too. Aargh…
Hopefully they’re not evolved from some old anthrax programme
1. The fact that UV-resistant bacteria exist doesn’t surprise me.
2. Perhaps the fact that they are ‘flying’ in the stratosphere should. It’s not something I ever thought about before – bugs in the stratosphere!
3. What’s the temperature up there? For cellular life to survive, even with ‘anti-freeze’ proteins in abundance, it probably mustn’t be too cold!
4. What do they eat up there? I guess they must just convert gas into organic materials – carbon dioxide? Methane?
Does suggest a madcap scheme of firing a load of these bacteria into the stratosphere to absorb sunlight and hence mitigate ‘global warming’ doesn’t it?
Whether it would work is quite another matter……..
Could it be that jet-planes carried them there?
I often wonder where the stuff goes after I flush the toilet.
“David S (19:14:02) :
I was just watching a TV show today which claimed that living organisms could not have lived on the surface of the earth 2 billion years ago because there was no ozone layer so the radiation would have killed everything. I guess that theory is now shot to pieces. Beyond that, I think this further demonstrates that we humans don’t know nearly as much as we think we do.”
The amazing thing is not that some of us think we know more than we do…it’s that it’s been proven to be true time and time again, yet some still fall prey to it.
Pure arrogance methinks.
JimB
Adds an anonymous Slashdot reader: “This paper in International Journal of Astrobiology [PDF] speculates how microorganisms reach the stratosphere.” It is really no surprise. Before 1965 I knew empirically that amoebas and paramecium fell in rainwater. It wasn’t a new observation. Give a kid a microscope and there is nothing that goes unexamined.
Did anybody else think of The Andromeda Strain when they saw this? I’d never heard of stratospheric life before now, but it’d been in the back of my mind since reading the novel and its Project Scoop.
Tim Hamilton (06:41:54) :
Did anybody else think of The Andromeda Strain when they saw this?
I sure did! I hope they are keeping these things bottled up tight.
Tom in South Jersey (18:45:58) :
Stratospheric microbes feeding on Crispy Fried Chicken? Is there no end to the detrimental effects of unhealthy food?
There are many of species of Arthropods in the soil that make these bacteria look like wilting violets. These arthropods can withstand 10,000 atmospheres and the hard radiation of space.
They are found everywhere on Earth – even on ice.
Lets not forget the water comets that hit the Earth every few minutes.
If there is oxygen or water vapor in the air, an ozone layer can be expected. And the lack of an ozone layer wouldn’t matter to stuff living [some unknown distance] under water.
* “Deep sea rocks point to early oxygen on earth”
* There are indications of a cool early earth with at least one ocean shortly after formation of the planet.
AnonyMoose (09:03:42) :
David S (19:14:02) :
I was just watching a TV show today which claimed that living organisms could not have lived on the surface of the earth 2 billion years ago because there was no ozone layer so the radiation would have killed everything.
If there is oxygen or water vapor in the air, an ozone layer can be expected. And the lack of an ozone layer wouldn’t matter to stuff living [some unknown distance] under water.
From my post above:
“Agglomerative substrates are substructures that make possible the accumulation of substances and the subsequent chemical interaction; for example, grains of Calcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Silicon Carbide, Graphite, Fullerenes (allotropic form of Carbon) and Iron Sulfur, which can contain icy water into their fissures and holes.”
The problem with the primordial soup is that UV, cosmic rays, x-rays, etc would prevent the formation of aminoacids, proteins, etc by breaking first all double ligants. The environment must have been pretty harsh for the formation of simple molecules. So maybe they formed under ground then…
Those bateria must reproduce by binary fission or budding. But it is still strange how something so heavy can stay airborn for so long. Another interesting question is, do they get fried when we have those sudden atmospheric warming every now and then?
In any case, you can bet they will use this as another reason to “control” the climate… those organisms must be saved. After the super-bugs, we now have the Unduly-bugs.
I think the decontamination business will boom. Think about every plane, rocket, satellites, etc that must be decontaminated. Maybe those were just ordinary bugs that we put up in space. They modified and upon reentry, they are now up there. Hmmm, planet of the apes anyone?
Ray (10:00:13):
The environment must have been pretty harsh for the formation of simple molecules. So maybe they formed under ground then…
Or inside agglomerative substrates, which would protect biomolecules from intense radiation even in the atmosphere.
No need for decontamination. Surface life gets exposed to those critters on the ubiquitous meteor dust. And that exposure has been going on for millions or billions of years, whether they’re cosmic, Martian, or survivors of sprite acceleration or asteroid impacts.
Perhaps they’ve been eating ozone to gain UV resistance. Could explain the ozone hole. Or maybe eating CO2, or expelling CO2, thus causing the CO2 increase.
I’d guess they’re actually like bacteria near deep sea vents, living on sulfur aerosols released by volcanoes.
Nasif Nahle (10:59:36) :
The problem of oxydation remains also a problem for early molecular buildup. It’s not because there was no photosynthesis that there were not any oxidants in the atmosphere.
Hey we need all of those little cylindrical buggers that we can muster. Think of all the lovely rain tht forms on their nice cyclindrical skins.
Anything that can form clouds is ok in my book; and it is for sure that we will get those critters on earth if any water vapor makes it up to their place.
George
Ray (14:43:09) :
The problem of oxydation remains also a problem for early molecular buildup. It’s not because there was no photosynthesis that there were not any oxidants in the atmosphere.
Yes, if we think that living beings were synthesized in ponds, wet soils and oceans. Nevertheless, the unique reducing environment was the primitive atmosphere, which was loaded with dust and grains like agglomerative substrates. The reducing microenvironment of modern agglomerative substrates found in interplanetary dust is made of substances trapped inside those granules. We deduce from experimentation with microspheres that protobionts probably were able to maintain reducing inner compartments through the storing of energy. Protobionts didn’t need of nucleic acids, but only of self replicating proteins. Some theoreticians, I among them, think that the modern prions are reminiscences of those self-replicating proteins.
I was just thinking about this some more, since there is no homework to do right now, and wondered to myself, “Self, I wonder if we float through bacteria clouds as we go through space.” Is there a satellite that monitors for life?
a humorous story about the circle of life
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=09/03/26/1622243
Nothing New Under the Sun!
Congratulations to these Indian scientists for repeating earlier studies by UK and Indian scientists showing that microbes are in the stratosphere. Anyone who is intertested can search Google for “wainwright stratosphere” for more details.
Best Wishes, Professor Milton Wainwright,Dept. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology,University of Sheffield,UK