Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Organisms living on iron pyrites and sulphur

Scientific discovery and discussion
ReformedCharacter
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3120
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Has thanked: 3590 times
Been thanked: 1509 times

Organisms living on iron pyrites and sulphur

#250603

Postby ReformedCharacter » September 9th, 2019, 8:24 pm

Sulphur-breathing creatures that feed on fool’s gold in caves have been found thousands of feet below the earth’s surface - a discovery which scientists say has the potential to unlock the secrets of how life began on earth and how it might survive on other planets.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/scie ... 97341.html

RC

stevensfo
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3435
Joined: November 5th, 2016, 8:43 am
Has thanked: 3805 times
Been thanked: 1397 times

Re: Organisms living on iron pyrites and sulphur

#252587

Postby stevensfo » September 18th, 2019, 8:25 pm

ReformedCharacter wrote:
Sulphur-breathing creatures that feed on fool’s gold in caves have been found thousands of feet below the earth’s surface - a discovery which scientists say has the potential to unlock the secrets of how life began on earth and how it might survive on other planets.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/scie ... 97341.html

RC


Great link, thanks. Though it's not exactly new. I think I learned about thermophile and anaerobic bacteria way back in 1979 in A-level Biology. Miles below the sea bed where water at 200'C is still liquid due to the pressure, and life goes on. They don't need oxygen, merely a few chemicals that can be used as an electron gradient to catalyse the reactions that they use to grow. There were some great Open Uni programmes about this in the early 1980s.

What is does do, as many Sci-Fi writers pointed out over the last 100 years or so, is to extend our ideas of where life can exist.

I vaguely remember a short Sci-Fi story about intelligent life living in liquid methane, arguing that life could not exist above about -100'C.

The real problem is to find intelligent life. Cos there isn't any on Earth! :-)

Steve

DiamondEcho
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3131
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:39 pm
Has thanked: 3060 times
Been thanked: 554 times

Re: Organisms living on iron pyrites and sulphur

#254802

Postby DiamondEcho » September 29th, 2019, 8:49 pm

Following on from^
Sea-life round hydro-thermal vents, thriving in conditions where 'no life should be possible'... https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/inverte ... -creatures


Return to “Science”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests