Newly Discovered Iron-breathing Species Have Lived In Cold Isolation For Millions Of Years

[laconicsax]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416144512.htm

A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report April 17 in the journal Science.

The discovery of life in a place where cold, darkness, and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive comes from a team led by researchers at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Harvard's Microbial Sciences Initiative.

Despite their profound isolation, the microbes are remarkably similar to species found in modern marine environments, suggesting that the organisms now under the glacier are the remnants of a larger population that once occupied an open fjord or sea.

...

Chemical analysis of effluent from the inaccessible subglacial pool suggests that its inhabitants have eked out a living by breathing iron leached from bedrock with the help of a sulfur catalyst. Lacking any light to support photosynthesis, the microbes have presumably survived by feeding on the organic matter trapped with them when the massive Taylor Glacier sealed off their habitat an estimated 1.5 to 2 million years ago.

Wow!

[Bicoastal]

1. And they've been posting on Free Republic the entire time.

[lob1]

2. No, no, no, no, no.

Freeper iron breathing microbes are only 6,000 years old.

[Journeyman]

3. And still there are some who say global warming may destroy life on Earth . . .

well, yeah, as we know it, but who's to say our great-great=grandkids won't live a life of blissful fulfillment, "breathing iron leached from bedrock with the help of a sulfur catalyst," munching on whatever organic crap gets caught in the maelstrom with them. Ah, evolution! Such wonders await. Stoke the fires, boys -- nirvana draws nigh!

[aquart]

4. Is this scifi fanfic? How does anything breathe iron?

WHAT'S OUT THERE IN THE UNIVERSE???????????????

[JuniperLea]

6. Exactomundo!

Too many base their thoughts and beliefs on what we currently know on any given subject. I say we don't know squat about much of anything.

[Posteritatis]

8. Hey, we breathe an incredibly reactive all-destroying gas.. (nt)

[Atman]

9. This is what drives me nuts about the "life on other planets" discussion

It always seems to end with carbon. You can't have life without carbon. But who the hell ever thought organisms could breathe iron? Why are our scientists, who should be trained to know better, forever entrenched in this carbon crap? The universe is huge place. It's not Star Trek, where every creature in every galaxy has two arms and two legs and just happens to speak English. "Life" can be anything. Just because we haven't thought of it yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist out there someplace.

This story proves the point.

.

[TheMadMonk]

15. Point not proven.

These critters are still carbon based, they have the same nucelic acids in their DNA as we have and the same amino acids (more or less) in their proteins.

It all ends with carbon, because only carbon has the chemical diversity to do all the things that make life possible.

[Ghost Dog]

10. The Universe is alive...

'programmed' for life, one may conjecture, based on the available evidence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Iron-reducing microbes first discovered in 1987 - in Washington DC

Geobacter species are of interest because of their novel electron transfer capabilities, impact on the natural environment and their application to the bioremediation of contaminated environments and harvesting electricity from waste organic matter. The first Geobacter species (initially designated strain GS-15) was isolated from the Potomac River, just down stream from Washington D.C. in 1987. This organism, known as Geobacter metallireducens, was the first organism found to oxidize organic compounds to carbon dioxide with iron oxides as the electron acceptor. In other words, Geobacter metallireducens gains its energy by using iron oxides (a rust-like mineral) in the same way that humans use oxygen. As outlined in the publication links, Geobacter metallireducens and other Geobacter species that have subsequently been isolated provide a model for important iron transformations on modern earth and may explain geological phenomena, such as the massive accumulation of magnetite in ancient iron formations.

Geobacter species are also of interest because of their role in environmental restoration. For example, Geobacter species can destroy petroleum contaminants in polluted groundwater by oxidizing these compounds to harmless carbon dioxide. As understanding of the functioning of Geobacter species has improved it has been possible to use this information to modify environmental conditions in order to accelerate the rate of contaminant degradation. As outlined under the Bioremediation link, Geobacter species are also useful for removing radioactive metal contaminants from groundwater.

Geobacter species also have the ability to transfer electrons onto the surface of electrodes. As outlined under the Microbial Fuel Cell link, this has made it possible to design novel microbial fuel cells which can efficiently convert waste organic matter to electricity.

http://www.geobacter.org/

The basic process seems to be reducing Fe(III) to Fe(II), and oxidising carbon at the same time.

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Geobacter_metallireducens

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0412_040412_pulsegeobacter.html

[Dogtown]

5. Excellent, laconicsax

K&R

[thereismore]

7. I now officially think that life on Io or other distant moons may be possible. nt

[Occulus]

12. I would say, extraterrestrial life is probably more likely than not.

We have found microbes living on Earth in conditions that are decidedly not "Earthlike" as we think of the term. It is absolutely not beyond the realm of imagination to say that similar conditions exist as the native environment on other planets. In fact, we should be paying close attention to the conditions in which we find these exotic forms of like on our own planet, and- once we truly begin to do so- look in similar areas on other planets for the same sort of thing.

I think it's almost beyond the realm of "belief" at this point, and firmly in the category of the eminently plausible.

[whyverne]

11. Isn't this a little scary?

Microbes that humans haven't been exposed to for millions of years. Melting out of the ice. Another reason not to worry about the money.

[Ready4Change]

14. Only if they are zombie microbes.

Then again, that would explain their 'survival' for millions of years without food!