Thread: Superbug

Just a quote from ‘The Fifth Miracle’ by Paul Davies containing information I never knew and thought I’d share:

”Indeed, healthy microbes have been found inhabiting the waste tanks of nuclear reactors, ingesting uranium, plutonium and other radioactive elements. Nor is pressure an obstacle. Common bacteria such as E. coli can be subjected to several hundred atmospheres without undue harm. At the other extreme, viable specimens of the bacterium Streptococcus mitis were retrieved from the surface of the Moon, where they had endured a complete vacuum for two years attached to a camera housing on the Surveyor III spacecraft.”

cool eh? :P

well there are some tough little bastards in this world.

I just think its cool how they went and came back. How did they survive re-entry though?

i didn't think it would have been that bad considering that the samples and camera would have been inside Apollo 12 on the ride down.

besides i think the equipement was contaminated after the missions return. they didn't find any other bacterial colonies of any kind in any other peices of equipement.

these bacteria can also be found on many humans, to my understanding it's not a healthy thing to have these bacteria in you.

Ah, that sort of takes the ‘coolness’ factor down. :P

What I think is even more amazing is living bacterial spores have been found inside 250 million old salt crystals. The spores have been sitting there in suspended animation for 250 million years just waiting for a chance to germinate!

where were these found?

This is the kind of thing that floats my boat. I love the implications of these types of discoveies!!

what i'd like to find is a mongoose found in some 250 million old salt crystals.

Originally Posted by wallaby

what i'd like to find is a mongoose found in some 250 million old salt crystals.

LMFAO!!! You wouldn't happen to be Hapsburg would you?

Originally Posted by Cottontop3000

Originally Posted by wallaby

what i'd like to find is a mongoose found in some 250 million old salt crystals.

LMFAO!!! You wouldn't happen to be Hapsburg would you?

Not to my knowlege...no.

Originally Posted by Daniel tillett

What I think is even more amazing is living bacterial spores have been found inside 250 million old salt crystals. The spores have been sitting there in suspended animation for 250 million years just waiting for a chance to germinate!

Subterranean life is equally amazing. A three-kilometre hole that was drilled through Triassic sediment in Taylorsville in Virginia uncovered unique hyperthermophiles*. Project scientists estimate that the site at Taylorsville has been occupied by microbes for at least 140 million years. The total inventory of deep-living microbe species runs into the thousands. Some core samples have been obtained with up to ten million bacteria per gram!

Depending on the ultimate temperature that hyperthermophiles can stand (I think it’s around 110oC), then the microbial realm might go as deep as four kilometres down under the ground and seven kilometres beneath the ocean floor. Truly amazing.

Now the question is how did these microbes get to be in such deep locations in the first place. Did they penetrate the rocks from above, get swept along in ground water, or even get trapped long ago when the sediments were first formed:

Originally Posted by Daniel tillett

The spores have been sitting there in suspended animation for 250 million years just waiting for a chance to germinate!

A number of these paths to the underworld could have been taken. The discovery of life under such extreme conditions has raised a very interesting question; the assumption is that surface life is ‘normal’, and subterranean life is an off-beat variation, can we be sure of this? Could it be that the reasoning is upside down? And that the truth is just the opposite? Did we ascend from Hades?

*Wikipedia: Hyperthermophiles