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Author
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Topic: Microbial Life Found in Hydrocarbon Lake
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hooah212002
Member (Idle past 823 days) Posts: 3193 Joined: 08-12-2009
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Message 1 of 9 (555884)
04-16-2010 1:37 AM
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http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25051/?ref=rss Interesting stuff. Life can happen almost anywhere it seems.
Pitch Lake is a poisonous, foul smelling, hell hole on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. The lake is filled with hot asphalt and bubbling with noxious hydrocarbon gases and carbon dioxide. Water is scarce here and certainly below the levels normally thought of as a threshold for life. These bugs are unlike anything we normally see on Earth. Analysis of gene sequences from these creatures show that they are single celled organisms such as archea and bacteria. They thrive in an oxygen-free environment with very little water, eating hydrocarbons and respiring with metals.
"Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Othersfor example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einsteinconsidered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws."-Carl Sagan "Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God." -Desmond Tutu
| Replies to this message: | | | Message 2 by Dr Adequate, posted 04-16-2010 1:57 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied | | | Message 3 by Huntard, posted 04-16-2010 3:37 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied | | | Message 7 by Coragyps, posted 04-16-2010 10:38 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied |
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Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 306 days) Posts: 16113 Joined: 07-20-2006
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"Such as archea or bacteria"? They are either one or the other or something else.
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 1 by hooah212002, posted 04-16-2010 1:37 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied |
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Huntard
Member (Idle past 2317 days) Posts: 2870 From: Limburg, The Netherlands Joined: 09-02-2008
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hooah212002 writes: Life can happen almost anywhere it seems.
What I always wonder when I read these articles is if the life indeed "happened"(I.e. originated) there, or if it evolved to fit that environment and it's ultimate source was somewhere else.
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 1 by hooah212002, posted 04-16-2010 1:37 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied |
| Replies to this message: | | | Message 8 by Aware Wolf, posted 04-16-2010 1:37 PM | | Huntard has not replied |
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Dr Jack
Member Posts: 3514 From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch Joined: 07-14-2003 Member Rating: 8.4
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Gads! It's a terribly written article isn't it? "bugs", "creepy crawlies", "such as archea [sic] or bacteria" - yikes! Fortunately it does link to it's source so you can have a read here quote:
Consistent with PLFA results, total bacterial SSU rRNA gene copy numbers in PL samples ranged between 106 to 107 copies/g (Fig. 2A and Table 4). Archaeal SSU rRNA copy numbers were several orders of magnitude lower, ranging between 104 to 105 copies/g (Fig 2B and Table 4).
So both are present, with more bacteria than archaea.
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 2 by Dr Adequate, posted 04-16-2010 1:57 AM | | Dr Adequate has replied |
| Replies to this message: | | | Message 9 by Dr Adequate, posted 04-16-2010 2:18 PM | | Dr Jack has not replied |
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Wounded King
Member Posts: 4149 From: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Joined: 04-09-2003
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The DNA was extracted from ground up asphalt samples not isolated bacterial strains, there is more than one type of microorganism in the samples so sequences from both the bacterial and archaeal domains are found. TTFN, WK
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 2 by Dr Adequate, posted 04-16-2010 1:57 AM | | Dr Adequate has not replied |
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hooah212002
Member (Idle past 823 days) Posts: 3193 Joined: 08-12-2009
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Message 6 of 9 (555929)
04-16-2010 9:40 AM
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Good thing you smart fellers are here to put me in check.
"Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Othersfor example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einsteinconsidered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws."-Carl Sagan "Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God." -Desmond Tutu
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Coragyps
Member (Idle past 756 days) Posts: 5553 From: Snyder, Texas, USA Joined: 11-12-2002
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Another odd one that goes under the theme of "wow, they can do that!!?? is the discovery of multicellular animals that live in permanently anoxic conditions. The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions | BMC Biology | Full Text
During the last ten years three oceanographic expeditions were conducted to search for the presence of living fauna in the sediments of the deep anoxic hypersaline L'Atalante basin (Mediterranean Sea). We report here that the sediments of the L'Atalante basin are inhabited by three species of the animal phylum Loricifera (Spinoloricus nov. sp., Rugiloricus nov. sp. and Pliciloricus nov. sp.) new to science. Using radioactive tracers, biochemical analyses, quantitative X-ray microanalysis and infrared spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy observations on ultra-sections, we provide evidence that these organisms are metabolically active and show specific adaptations to the extreme conditions of the deep basin, such as the lack of mitochondria, and a large number of hydrogenosome-like organelles, associated with endosymbiotic prokaryotes.
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 1 by hooah212002, posted 04-16-2010 1:37 AM | | hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied |
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Aware Wolf
Member (Idle past 1442 days) Posts: 156 From: New Hampshire, USA Joined: 02-13-2009
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Message 8 of 9 (555953)
04-16-2010 1:37 PM
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Reply to: Message 3 by Huntard
04-16-2010 3:37 AM
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Yeah, I think the same thing. Of course, these guys have DNA, so I think that would be a dead givaway that they are part of "the family".... unless they aren't, and what would that say?
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 3 by Huntard, posted 04-16-2010 3:37 AM | | Huntard has not replied |
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Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 306 days) Posts: 16113 Joined: 07-20-2006
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Message 9 of 9 (555958)
04-16-2010 2:18 PM
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Reply to: Message 4 by Dr Jack
04-16-2010 4:53 AM
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Gads! It's a terribly written article isn't it? "bugs", "creepy crawlies", "such as archea [sic] or bacteria" - yikes! I am still trying to perfect a death-ray that will kill only science journalists. When I do, they will misreport it. Very briefly.
| This message is a reply to: | | | Message 4 by Dr Jack, posted 04-16-2010 4:53 AM | | Dr Jack has not replied |
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