Trillions of microbes
living deep within our planet, at the terrestrial subsurface of more than 2 km, were a mystery to us: Until now.
Life as we know it,
requires the input of energy, such as sunlight, to thrive.
From the exploration of the deep sea hydrothermal vents we discovered that some microbes can replace the job our plants do here on the surface of the planet.
Plants use the sun
to create carbon-complexed compounds and proteins, that provide us with nutrients for our life needs.
Plants are called primary producers
for this reason, because we need them to give us food and energy. In analogous fashion, rock-eating microbes that can stand living under the extreme undersea environment of heat (from the hydrothermal sea vents), and pressure (at miles below sea-level), are the primary producers for the tube worms, and other life that thrives in that region of the ocean.
It's taken decades for microbiologists to gradually realize, that the biosphere
(the range at which life exists), extended deep within our planet, to depths that seemed inconceivable. After all, how would these microbes eat?
And yet, microbiologists continued to drill and core deep below the sea floor.
And what did they find? They found that microbes are living in rocks that are over 100 million years old! That's around the time dinosaurs went extinct.
Microbes in the subsurface rocks are not fossils.
These are large communities of living microbes: Trillions of them feeding on stone like it was bread. Decades of dedicated research and their tireless devotees (the scientists) give us the knowledge that yes, the microbes are down there, and their living world is an incredibly vast community! The big, unanswered question was: Just how exactly was this vast community of microbial life getting fed?
But now, answer is unveiled.
By Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a geochemist who showed that microbes are feeding off hydrogen from deep mine sites.
This hydrogen is being made by radioactivity - which splits the hydrogen from water.
This new discovery, of a new non-photosynthetic ecosystem, is the result of decades of work by a diverse array of scientists - including microbiologists, geologists, chemists, and astrobiologists. They have defined the food source for these deep surface microbes.And Sherwood Lollar's investigations put together how microbes could grow on hydrogen
and use sulfate as food and energy, by using these compounds after being released from rocks by radiolysis.
These microbes are feeding on hydrogen and sulfate, that results from a process called radiolysis.
Radioactivity from subterranean environments is splitting water and rock to give the microbes the elements and compounds they need.
Radiolysis, which involves the splitting of molecules by radioactivity, was first recognized and documented by Marie Curie.
Pictured here in her laboratory.
One of many reasons this vast subsurface microbiome remained unknown for so is that these microbes grow way more slowly than the commonly known microbe.
They take 100 and even 1000 days to double. If you compare this to the average doubling of 20 minutes, for say, E. coli, you might say that these deep rock microbes are on "geologic time." Takes a long time for them to become populous enough to notice by us humans.
<<<A mass of E. coli cells.
In 2006, a Princeton research group discovered an isolated community of bacteria nearly two miles underground that was postulated to live off radiolysis.
These studies help us to design missions to discover biosignatures for extraterrestrial worlds.
It's great we know that these deep surface microbes are living off radiolysis.
But everyone wants to see them too!
Especially if we are going to examine rocks from Mars and other planets that might contain evidence for life. So a research group from Japan, led by Yohey Suzuki can show live microbes in deep 104 million year old rocks, by applying some clever twists to make these bacterial cells fluoresce through rocks, so we can all see how lovely they shine!
Message from the Deep, Subsurface, Microbe Spirit Guide.
What is the spiritual message from these deep, subterranean microbes?
• Alternative solutions will take time, be patient
• Find uncommon sources of nourishment.
• Discover survival tools that have long been overlooked.
• Time to un-earth talents no one every expected you had.
• You hold the key to finding life on other worlds
Final Message from the Microbe Spirit Guide
• "Once in a while, you get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if you look at it right."<TIME STAMP on VIDEO: 8:40
Desulforudis audaxviator, reminded me of the lyrics from the song "Scarlet Begonia's" by "The Grateful Dead."
Given that the music from Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead, elevates many of us to other dimensions of feeling and wonder, it seems appropriate.
Because these microbes thriving in the subterranean world beneath us, have brought us to a new state of consciousness. We now know more about what they do down there! As we Microbe Whisper about their unique ways of eating "bread" from stones, we can find ways to apply this wisdom in our own particular environment. May you all find wonderful and unique ways to nourish yourselves as we enter the summer season.
With Joy, JeM