Microbe discovery that may be more precious than gold
THEY are the microbes from hell, or at least hell's postcode.
A team of scientists has found bacteria living almost three kilometres underground, dining on sulfur in a world of steaming water and radioactive rock - completely independent of the sun.
The organisms, which have been there for millions of years, will probably survive as long as the planet does, drawing energy from the stygian world around them.
Found in water spilling out of a fissure in a South African goldmine in 2003, they are among the most primitive life forms described, researchers reported in yesterday's issue of the journal Science.
What is unusual is that their underground home contains no nutrients traceable to photosynthesis, the sunlight-harnessing process that fuels all life on earth's surface. Such a community is an oddity on this planet - and is of interest to people looking for life on other ones.
"There is an organism that dominates that environment by feeding off an essentially inexhaustible source of energy, radiation," said Tullis Onstott, a geoscientist at Princeton University who led the team.
"The bottom line is: water plus rocks plus radiation is enough to sustain life for millennia."
The research was mainly done by Li-Hung Lin, of National Taiwan University.
Professor Li-Hung descended three times to the fissure in East Driefontein Gold Mine, south-west of Johannesburg, to get samples. It was 2.7 kilometres underground, and the temperature of the rock was 50 degrees.
MOre at http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/microbe-discovery-that-may-be-more-precious-than-gold/2006/10/20/1160851142263.html
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