It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It!
“What we have found is the first visual confirmation of primitive microbial communities in what is considered to be the best preserved ancient organic matter on our planet,” boasts Dr. Miryam Glikson.
The University of Queensland (UQ) in Western Australia, reported findings of fossilized primitive life which dated back over 3.5 billion years, according to Rusty Rocket’s article August 11, 2007, “Microbial Awakenings” in Science Talk. The funny thing is everyone is looking for proof of ancient life on Mars, and here it right in front of us–on Earth!
Scientists have studies showing that the “basic molecules of life emerged roughly 3.7 billion years ago.” According to the article, this was found out because of pre-conditions that were going on with Earth during then. Basic molecules of life developed into lipid bilayers, which then produced the fundamental structure of cell membranes. So what are we doing on Mars, searching for water and signs of life, when an isolated area exists on Earth—the Pilbara region of Western Australia—which has been pretty popular to the “origin of life researchers” for several years.
Miryam Glikson, a doctor of geology, stated that the area and rocks where the specimens were found were intact. As ancient as they were, they had only negligible alterations. Not a new site to searchers for such things, Dr. Miryam Glikson said that the Pilbara region was only one of two locations—with the other one being Barberton, South Africa. Regardless of other negative opinions concerning the findings and their quality, Dr. Sue Golding, Director of UQ’s Stable Isotope Laboratory in the Division of Earth Sciences, stated that the specimens went through thorough and extensive testing, unlike any earlier testing that were done in similar materials, which had suggested microbial involvement.
With the search for similar findings on Mars encased in ice or located in the recent findings of water/ice, a paper that appeared in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” was based on microbes that were encased in ice in the Antarctic, an area that seems to mimic any life forms in a similar environment as on Mars. But what was interesting in this study was that microbes were revived in addition to finding them. What was important about Kay Bidle’s study, assistant professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers, was that now we know that primitive life forms can “pop back up” from being frozen—a fact we did not know before her study. We also did not know what type of damage was done when they were in frozen states.
When the Antarctic ice was defrosted, aged around 100,000 to 8 million years ago, it was done so to examine the microbes located inside the ice. The microbes were not only present, but also could be grown in media, with the young ice growing faster microbes while allowing themselves to be plated and isolated in colonies—doubling ever two days or so. These findings bring hope to what the Phoenix and its mission will discover on Mars, paving the way toward a look at life that was and can be there.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 8:54 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
