The article I chose to blog about gave a very interesting argument
that live on other planets like Mars and Venus probably dwell deep beneath the
surface. Half a mile deep in a South African goldmine newly discovered microbes
were found in pools of water heated by decaying uranium and thorium. Testing
reports showed that the new ecosystem has flourished for the last 20 million
years. These newly discovered microbes use hydrogen and are sulfate reducers
that closely resemble Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii that are found near vents on the ocean
floor. This new species does not rely on the sun and receive all their
resources from inorganic processes. Scientist claim that the micro organism has
a 45 to 300 day doubling period dubbing species very inactive.
http://www.standardsingenomics.org/index.php/sigen/article/viewFile/362/882/7701
I found the
argument to be very convincing. The writer used Ethos and Logos to convey his
argument in a very straight forward manner. The evidence presented offers a
clear cut example that life is able to flourish underground for millions maybe
even billions of years. The Mars rover has been looking for life on the surface
of Mars for awhile now. This new discovery suggests that maybe we are looking
in the wrong place and we should rethink our approach at searching for live
beyond our planet. Microbes are truly one of the most resilient and sufficient
organisms we know of and this article just goes to show that as we discover
more about our own planet we in turn are better able to understand the planets
that surround us.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/et-may-be-a-microbe-life/
Abdullah, space and other planets is an interesting topic because it is fascinating to me and I always like to hear what is going on in the science world. This new study on our own planet can definitely help us with our research on mars and other planets. It still amazes me that microbes can live in extreme environments like the chemical filled pools in Africa. Sometimes I see microbes as little insignificant micro organisms than I am forced to think differently because some are helpful to our existence. These microbes seem to be minding their own business and going about their daily lives reducing sulfur. This discovery shows that there are so many microbes, that we are discovering new ones every day. It is truly amazing how many microbes there are in just our human gut not to mention all over the world. I hope this discovery will lead to new finding on our own planet and on other ones as well.
ReplyDeleteThis new species of microbes that was discovered deep below the earth surface seems like a very highly important discovery. This may be useful to help NASA astronomers find life on another planet; extraterrestrial microbes would be a very important discovery for science. Also that new species that was discovered half a mile deep in the South African goldmine was also very interesting. This discovery could prove to be I benefit to microbiology. Because these new microbes have flourished for over 20 million years and can last for millions or even billions of years to come can help scientist understand early life on earth. Also the fact that the microbes were found in a pool of decaying uranium and thorium shows us that microbes can survive in very extreme conditions, even more so than some extremophiles on the surface. Overall this article and the discovery of this new species was important.
ReplyDelete