-
(via baeleboom)
(Source: spiraleyedowls, via baeleboom)
I was Amelia Earhart
(via cailleboat)
No Light, No Warmth, No Problem: Extreme Life Thrives in Antarctic Lake
—
Microbial life has been discovered sealed in a brine lake beneath 65 feet of Antarctic ice after spending nearly 3,000 years isolated from external energy sources.
The findings, detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describe the microbes’ Lake Vida habitat as aphotic (with little or no light), anoxic (without oxygen), and slightly acidic brine with a temperature of -13C. Carbon dating has indicated that the inhospitable-sounding brine has been isolated for more than 2,800 years.
“This provides us with new boundary conditions on the limits for life,” said Peter T Doran, a professor at the University of Illinois’ Earth and Environmental Science department, in a press release. “The low temperature or high salinity on their own are limiting, but combined with an absence of solar energy or any new inputs from the atmosphere, they make this a very tough place to make a living.”
Previous studies of the brine in Lake Vida from 2002 had discovered the presence of ancient microbes, however these needed to be thawed before life signs were observed. The most recent result showed Vida to contain a diverse and metabolically active bacteria-dominated ecosystem.
To investigate life in the sub-Antarctic lake the team collected samples of brine from ice cores. The results showed reduced and oxidised compounds as well as high levels of molecular hydrogen.
“Geochemical analyses suggest that chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying sediment generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen,” said Fabien Kenig, also of the University of Illinois, in the press release. “The hydrogen may provide some of the energy needed to support microbes.”
As well as providing valuable information about terrestrial cryohabitats, the Lake Vida ecosystem could also provide an analogue for possible life conditions on icy worlds beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
(via WIRED)
ohh
(Source: kaciekatt, via colouration)
whew what a heart breaker and all these things coming in… when I write I feel so confined by the gaze of these patronages, like appendages, to be amputated and limped on without, like that episode of the jerry springer show with that guy, he just felt this pain in his foot for the longest time, and then one day the pain started to spread, and it spread up to his ankle, and his knee and his hip, so he got a hack saw and just offed it from the foot, and then the knee, and then further up. And then it happened that the other foot was hurt, and it spread as well, and so he had to cut off his leg from the knee down. And there he was on Jerry, just plain as day, this is what needed to happen, and this is what I did about it. When the only
thing that remains
is still and quiet
it clings to the memory of what came before, like a cat on a curtain
tearing through the delicate lace, passed down the generations, imported from England, in the 1600s, made in a factory that replaced a shop run by a small family, and the babushka she weaved this lace from a pattern in her dream and she dreamed about the stars and she dreamed about the leaves and the needles that pattered and pittered and pattered across the forest floor and they glowed purple and gold and red and pinks in the autumn mornings.
And I breath in the autumn air and there’s nothing to remember. I owe you
nothing, and you’ll borrow nothing because that’s what you expect from me. All I owe.
