Sentences with phrase «deep microbial life»

This study has important implications for the search for deep microbial life.

Not exact matches

Tullis Onstott has to put on a headlamp and protective gear when excavating microbial live in some of South Africa's deepest mines.

The oozy red slush of Blood Falls in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys contains teeming microbial life — and may be a sample of a deep briny groundwater system hundreds of meters below the surface.

Recent findings emphasize the importance of investigating members of the archaeal domain of life in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of microbial ecology, symbiosis, and metabolic interdependencies involving archaeal partners, and of evolution of life on Earth in regard to the deep roots of archaea as well as our microbial ancestry.

An analysis of the deepest spot in the oceans finds signs of microbial life.

Only further investigation will reveal how much of it makes its way from the river transport to the deep ocean, however, and how it might affect marine life, especially microbial communities that live in and feed on small organic particles.

The approach, called tunable infrared laser direct absorption spectroscopy, detects the ratio of methane isotopes, which can provide a «fingerprint» to differentiate between two common origins: microbial, in which microorganisms, typically living in wetlands or the guts of animals, produce methane as a metabolic byproduct; or thermogenic, in which organic matter, buried deep within the Earth, decays to methane at high temperatures.

«It's given me this deep appreciation for this microbial world in which we live,» she says.

Finding out how methane and other organic species are formed in deep - sea hydrothermal systems is compelling because these compounds support modern day life, providing energy for microbial communities in the deep biosphere, and because of the potential role of abiotically - formed organic compounds in the origin of life.

Although the evidence was subsequently contested, some single - celled microbial life lacking a nucleus that segregates their internal DNA or RNA («prokaryotes») from the surrounding cytoplasm may have flourished in darkness within cracks in Earth's seafloor crust and around deep, warm or boiling hot ocean springs (hydrothermal or volcanic vents, such as at Lost City or at black smokers) without a need for light or free oxygen in the oceans or atmosphere.

Commenting on the latest study, which he was not involved in, he says the findings represent «excellent news» for the possibility of detecting microbial life deep in the ocean.

Microbial life, however, should have survived in or around cracks in warm ocean seafloors, deep volcanic vents, surface volcanic springs, and other warm niches.

Field observations of microbes recovered from deep drill cores, deep mines, and the ocean floor, coupled with laboratory investigations, reveal that microbial life can exist at conditions of extreme temperatures (to above 110ºC) and pressures (to > 10,000 atmospheres) previous thought impossible.

Looking for Microbial Martians Drilling the Frozen Fields Killing the Life We Seek Looking for Martian Life Digging Deep Martian Bunny Chase