A new study suggests that spring snowmelt in the Alps is occurring earlier in the year, and the earlier warming – due to climate change – threatens vitally important microbial communities in Alpine soils. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/alps-climate-change-driven-snowmelt-abrupt-seasonal-change…
Tag: microbes
What’s the coldest Earth has ever been?
Our planet’s history includes episodes of cold so extreme that glaciers reached sea level in equatorial regions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/whats-coldest-earth-has-ever-been…
Life from Earth could temporarily survive on Mars
Some microbes on Earth could temporarily survive on the surface of Mars, finds a new study by NASA and German Aerospace Center scientists. The researchers tested the endurance of microorganisms to Martian conditions by launching them into the Earth’s stratosphere, as it closely represents key conditions on the Red Planet. Published in Frontiers in Microbiology, this work paves the way for…
Deepest land-dwelling microbes found at bottom of 5km hole in China
Microbes at the bottom of the third deepest hole in the world may be surviving life at 137°C, which would extend life’s known thermal tolerances Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2268428-deepest-land-dwelling-microbes-found-at-bottom-of-5km-hole-in-china/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Antarctic lakes deep beneath the ice could be teeming with microbial life
Heat from the Earth’s interior may help sustain life in this bizarre environment. Source: https://www.livescience.com/microbes-life-subglacial-lakes.html
New evidence for multiple ice ages on Mars
Earth has had at least 5 major ice ages. Now it appears Mars – the next planet outward from the sun – has undergone anywhere from half a dozen to 20 ice ages in the past several hundred million years. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-evidence-for-multiple-ice-ages-on-mars…
Hundreds of never-before-seen life-forms live in this 6,000-foot-deep volcano’s acid jets
Researchers discover 300 novel microbes living near the blazing hot jets of an underwater volcano near New Zealand Source: https://www.livescience.com/extreme-microbes-underwater-volcano.html
Wildfire Smoke Is Loaded With Microbes. Is That Dangerous?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: If you’re unfortunate enough to breathe wildfire smoke, you’re getting a lungful of charred plant material, noxious gases, and — if the fire tore through human structures — incinerated synthetic materials. All across the board, it’s bad stuff, proven to be a severe detriment to human health, particularly for those with respiratory conditions…
Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground
A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…
Microbes to demonstrate biomining of asteroid material aboard space station
As humanity moves closer to the possibility of living and working millions of miles from Earth on planets like Mars, scientists are looking beyond our planet at how to acquire the materials needed to establish a self-sustaining presence in space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-microbes-biomining-asteroid-material-aboard.html…