Gold mine holds life untouched by the Sun

[Mr. McD]

The first known organisms that live totally independently of the sun have been discovered deep in a South African gold mine.

The bacteria exist without the benefit of photosynthesis by harvesting the energy of natural radioactivity to create food for themselves. Similar life forms may exist on other planets, experts speculate.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10336-gold-mine-holds-life-untouched-by-the-sun.html

[thereismore]

1. cool nt

[Lautremont]

2. And there'd be no limit to how large these sunless, radioactive

bacterias could get! You could well have bacterias as big as swimming-pool covers down there. I wouldn't go down there, no sir.

[htuttle]

3. Steve McQueen was once in a movie about that

...early on in his career.

[JuniperLea]

5. DOH!

Great minds!

[htuttle]

6. Well, you found a better picture!

[JuniperLea]

4. LOL!!

Maybe the Blob was a bacteria!

<>

[lazyriver]

7. Free labor

I am sure that Dick Cheney has already convened a secret natural resources meeting with mining company executives in order to determine how best to exploit these life forms and put them to work harvesting their gold.

Seriously though, cool find!

[Ian David]

8. Well, it's not ENTIRELY unexpected...

Gold mine holds life untouched by the Sun
19:00 19 October 2006
NewScientist.com news service
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10336-gold-mine-holds-life-untouched-by-the-sun.html

[AllegroRondo]

9. Just WOW

life using radioactivity for energy, just amaizing.

This opens huge new areas in the search for life on other planets.

[Igel]

12. But indirectly.

Posit this energy source, point out the way other bacteria use similar sources, and there's no reason to be surprised at this.

Intrigued, but not surprised.

[TechBear_Seattle]

10. What about "smoker" biomes?

The many forms of life that develop around "smokers," underwater vents where water rich in sulfides and hydrates erupts from below the earth's crust? I recall that there are many forms of life around these which do not rely on any form of photosynthesis and instead derive all of their energy from the heat and chemicals of the vents.

[bananas]

11. a plea to save new scientist

their reporting has gone downhill.
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2006/09/a_plea_to_save_new_scientist.html

[bemildred]

14. Yeah, and caves, and other things.

There is plenty of "dark life".

[drm604]

15. My first thought also.

But maybe it could be argued that the volcanic energy of those smokers comes at least partly from tidal forces acting on the crust and therefore the sun is involved, whereas this isn't the case for this new find. Just a thought, probably a dumb one.

[Occulus]

13. Oh! That can't happen!

ALL life needs sunlight! It's impossible!! Your physics are wrong!!! Biology denies this possibility!!!! IT needs more energy input than a cave can provide!!!!!

(Yep, I'm channeling. Take a guess who.)

:D

[jokerman93]

16. infinite diversity in infinite combinations!

"O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!"
~Shakespeare