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Posted: 07-08-2013 08:16 Post subject:

Boulby mine: Underground life gives alien clues
By Rebecca Morelle, Science reporter, BBC World Service

Learning whether extraterrestrial life exists is one of the biggest challenges of science - but now a mine in the north-east of England could hold the key. Researchers believe studying the tiny organisms living deep underground could help them to understand whether life could thrive beyond the Earth.

We plunge into darkness as we start the descent into the mine.
Crammed into a cage, it takes just a few minutes to make the journey more than 1km (0.5 mile) down.
As we emerge, kitted out with hard hats, head-torches and emergency breathing gear, the heat hits like a wall - temperatures in parts of the mine can reach more than 35C.

The Boulby Mine, operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd, is one of the deepest in Europe and it stretches across North Yorkshire and the Cleveland and Redcar Borders.
The miners start to make their way through the network of tunnels to begin their shifts. Since the 1970s, potash and salt have been extracted from the ground, but the rocks here also hold something more.

Although the dusty terrain looks barren it is packed with tiny organisms.
Professor Charles Cockell, from the UK Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh, says: "We have got very extreme conditions from the point of view of life.
"This is a very salty environment, it's very dark, which means there's no sunlight for energy, and there is very little water.
"So making a living deep underground here is very difficult for most life, and we are interested in trying to find out how life can survive and even thrive in an environment like this."

The microbes, too small to see with the naked eye, are called extremophiles, and Professor Cockell and his team have come here to take samples to learn more about them.
Studying these, he says, could tell us whether life could cope in other similar environments elsewhere in the Universe.

"If you look on Mars, you find table salt on the surface of that planet - sodium chloride brine seeps," Prof Cockell explains.
"If you look at Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, you find a salty ocean beneath an icy crust.
"There are salts everywhere in the Universe. If you want to understand whether life might be able to originate and grow in some of the extraterrestrial environments, and assess them as abodes for life, you need to come to a dark salty environment."

Using our torches to light the way, we head to the on-site laboratory.
It is in stark contrast to the rest of the mine: we step into a bright white room full of gleaming scientific instruments.
This lab has been running here for years and is the result of a collaboration between the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the mining company.

Dr Sean Paling, director of the Boulby Underground Laboratory, says: "It is unusual to have a lab like this is a mine. It's even unusual to the miners - they can't quite believe we have this here."

Until recently, research here has focussed on the hunt for dark matter: the mysterious particles thought to make up about a quarter of the Universe. But the team is now broadening its research.
"The reason we came down here for this astronomy is because it is a very, very quiet environment," Dr Paling explains.
"There is very little interference down here from natural radiation - the particles you get on the surface.
"But there are lots of other projects you can do in such an environment. We have a climate research project, various radio-dating studies, a carbon capture and research study, and now also the astrobiology laboratory."

He adds: "It does seem like a contradiction in a way - you have these big questions about what the Universe is made of and is there life on other planets and what that life is like. And yet, here we are studying it underground, but that is absolutely what's happening. This sort of environment allows you to do that sort of study extremely well."
It's early days, but genetic tests are already revealing that the mine harbours unusual species.

And while the hope is that one day we might find intelligent, advanced extraterrestrial life, the chances are that any alien species could be more like the simple organisms living in the mine.

Prof Charles Cockell says: "Is there life elsewhere in the Universe is undoubtedly one of the most exciting questions in science.
"So the search for extreme life in Boulby is not some sort of wild optimistic hope of finding life elsewhere. It gives us a scientific basis of understanding whether there is life in the Universe, and if it is there, whether it is similar to Earth life, and if it's not, why it's not."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23522734

Posted: 29-08-2013 09:21 Post subject:

Earth life 'may have come from Mars'
By Simon Redfern, Reporter, BBC News, Florence

Life may have started on Mars before arriving on Earth, a major scientific conference has heard.
New research supports an idea that the Red Planet was a better place to kick-start biology billions of years ago than the early Earth was.
The evidence is based on how the first molecules necessary for life were assembled.
Details of the theory were outlined by Prof Steven Benner at the Goldschmidt Meeting in Florence, Italy.

Scientists have long wondered how atoms first came together to make up the three crucial molecular components of living organisms: RNA, DNA and proteins.
The molecules that combined to form genetic material are far more complex than the primordial "pre-biotic" soup of organic (carbon-based) chemicals thought to have existed on the Earth more than three billion years ago, and RNA (ribonucleic acid) is thought to have been the first of them to appear.

Simply adding energy such as heat or light to the more basic organic molecules in the "soup" does not generate RNA. Instead, it generates tar. Twisted Evil

RNA needs to be coaxed into shape by "templating" atoms at the crystalline surfaces of minerals.
The minerals most effective at templating RNA would have dissolved in the oceans of the early Earth, but would have been more abundant on Mars, according to Prof Benner.

This could suggest that life started on the Red Planet before being transported to Earth on meteorites, argues Prof Benner, of the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Gainesville, US.

The idea that life originated on Mars and was then transported to our planet has been mooted before. But Prof Benner's ideas add another twist to the theory of a Martian origin for the terrestrial biosphere.

Here in Florence, Prof Benner presented results that suggest minerals containing the elements boron and molybdenum are key in assembling atoms into life-forming molecules.
The researcher points out that boron minerals help carbohydrate rings to form from pre-biotic chemicals, and then molybdenum takes that intermediate molecule and rearranges it to form ribose, and hence RNA.

This raises problems for how life began on Earth, since the early Earth is thought to have been unsuitable for the formation of the necessary boron and molybdenum minerals.
It is thought that the boron minerals needed to form RNA from pre-biotic soups were not available on early Earth in sufficient quantity, and the molybdenum minerals were not available in the correct chemical form.

Prof Benner explained: "It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidised that it is able to influence how early life formed.
"This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago, the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did.
"It’s yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."

Early Mars is also thought to have had a drier environment, and this is also crucial to its favourable location for life's origins.
"What’s quite clear is that boron, as an element, is quite scarce in Earth’s crust," Prof Benner told BBC News, “but Mars has been drier than Earth and more oxidising, so if Earth is not suitable for the chemistry, Mars might be.
"The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock," he commented.

"It’s lucky that we ended up here, nevertheless - as certainly Earth has been the better of the two planets for sustaining life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained on Mars, there may not have been a story to tell." Cool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23872765

I can see religious fundamentalists having trouble with this idea!

Posted: 29-08-2013 09:29 Post subject:

Where did Mars get its oxygen so early?

Posted: 04-09-2013 22:03 Post subject:

That's right. But Mars is also not big enough to keep hold of oxygen in the long term, either. Any oxygen not absorbed by the crust would be lost to space over a period of a gigayear or more.

Posted: 20-09-2013 09:11 Post subject:

Alien life found living in Earth's atmosphere, claims scientist
Aliens do exist and have been found living in the clouds above the Peak District, according to new claims by scientists.
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
4:54PM BST 19 Sep 2013

Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Buckingham University claim to have found evidence for microscopic organisms living 16 miles up in the atmosphere between Chester and Wakefield. Shocked

The scientists used a specially designed balloon to gather samples in the stratosphere during the recent Perseid meteor shower.
They found the fragments of single celled algae known as a diatom.

They argue that this could be the first evidence to show how life may have arrived on Earth from space, perhaps carried here by meteorites.
It is not the first time organisms have been found in the atmosphere and indeed the skies are thought to be teeming with microscopic life.
Many scientists, however, insist these microorganisms are carried up into the atmosphere by storms and other natural processes.

Professor Milton Wainwright, from the department of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield who led the work, said: “Most people will assume that these biological particles must have just drifted up to the stratosphere from Earth.
“But it is generally accepted that a particle of the size found cannot be lifted from Earth to heights of, for example, 27km.
“The only known exception is by a violent volcanic eruption, none of which occurred within three years of the sampling trip.

“In the absence of a mechanism by which large particles like these can be transported to the stratosphere we can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space.
"Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here.”

The findings are published in the Journal of Cosmology, a scientific journal that often publishes papers on astrobiology but is highly controversial among scientists.
It has often been criticised by the scientific establishment for publishing papers of a more fringe variety.

Two years ago it controversially published a paper that claimed to have identified fossils of microbiotic life in a meteorite, sparking a blaze of publicity, but some astronomers were highly sceptical of the findings.

Professor Wainwright and his colleagues claim that their findings could be “revolutionary” and will “completely change our view of biology and evolution”.
They collected their samples after launching the balloon into the atmosphere near to Chester on 31 July 2013.
It carried microscopic studs in a drawer that opened for 17 minutes in the stratosphere so that particulate material in the atmosphere would attach to them.
The samples were taken at altitudes between 13 miles and 16 miles.

The balloon landed close to Wakefield and was taken to the laboratory where the studs were placed under an electron microscopes to search for signs of life.
The researchers insist they swabbed the balloon with alcohol before launch and took other precautions to prevent contamination of the samples.

Earlier this year scientists working with Nasa announced they too had discovered bacteria living between four and five miles above the Earth’s surface.
Air samples taken from the upper troposphere by an aircraft revealed 314 different types of bacteria in the air above the Atlantic Ocean and the US.
However, they concluded that much of the bacteria, which accounted for 20 per cent of the particles they collected, were thrown up there by the movement of air as hurricanes formed.

A team of British researchers, who are separate from the scientists in Sheffield, have this week also set off on a 2,000 mile expedition to take samples from clouds in an effort to search for signs of life.
The Cloud Lab expedition, which is being filmed by the BBC, will use Nasa instruments to analyse samples for signs bacteria and fungi in clouds at up to 8,000 feet.

It is thought these microorganisms may play a key role in cloud formation by catalysing the formation of ice crystals, leading to water to condense around them to produce clouds.
Many of these organisms would likely fall to earth in rain drops.

Felicity Aston, the lead meteorologist on the Cloud Lab expedition and a former researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, said: “One of the holes in our knowledge about clouds is exactly how a cloud droplet grows and what makes it fall out the sky.
“It is really interesting to look not only at how life is affected by weather but how weather is affected by life – what role do these organisms play in cloud formation.”

Professor Wainwright and his colleagues now hope to carry out further tests using balloons next month to coincide with the Haley's Comet-associated meteorite shower.
Prof Wainwright said that he hoped to conduct tests on any organisms found to help unravel where they are coming from.
He added: "If the ratio of certain isotopes gives one number then our organisms are from Earth, if it gives another, then they are from space.
"The tension will obviously be almost impossible to live with." Wink

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10321227/Alien-life-found-living-in-Earths-atmosphere-claims-scientist.html

Posted: 20-09-2013 09:58 Post subject: Alien life in Earth's atmosphere

Seem to be diatoms but how would they get up there? Note also that the journal publishing is also not one of the premier scientific ones. Great story all the same.

Alien life found living in Earth's atmosphere, claims scientist

Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Buckingham University claim to have found evidence for microscopic organisms living 16 miles up in the atmosphere between Chester and Wakefield.
The scientists used a specially designed balloon to gather samples in the stratosphere during the recent Perseid meteor shower.
They found the fragments of single celled algae known as a diatom.
They argue that this could be the first evidence to show how life may have arrived on Earth from space, perhaps carried here by meteorites.
It is not the first time organisms have been found in the atmosphere and indeed the skies are thought to be teeming with microscopic life.
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Many scientists, however, insist these microorganisms are carried up into the atmosphere by storms and other natural processes.
Professor Milton Wainwright, from the department of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield who led the work, said: “Most people will assume that these biological particles must have just drifted up to the stratosphere from Earth.
“But it is generally accepted that a particle of the size found cannot be lifted from Earth to heights of, for example, 27km.
“The only known exception is by a violent volcanic eruption, none of which occurred within three years of the sampling trip.
“In the absence of a mechanism by which large particles like these can be transported to the stratosphere we can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space.
“Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here.”
The findings are published in the Journal of Cosmology, a scientific journal that often publishes papers on astrobiology but is highly controversial among scientists.
It has often been criticised by the scientific establishment for publishing papers of a more fringe variety.
Two years ago it controversially published a paper that claimed to have identified fossils of microbiotic life in a meteorite, sparking a blaze of publicity, but some astronomers were highly sceptical of the findings.
Professor Wainwright and his colleagues claim that their findings could be “revolutionary” and will “completely change our view of biology and evolution”.
They collected their samples after launching the balloon into the atmosphere near to Chester on 31 July 2013.
It carried microscopic studs in a drawer that opened for 17 minutes in the stratosphere so that particulate material in the atmosphere would attach to them.
The samples were taken at altitudes between 13 miles and 16 miles.
The balloon landed close to Wakefield and was taken to the laboratory where the studs were placed under an electron microscopes to search for signs of life.
The researchers insist they swabbed the balloon with alcohol before launch and took other precautions to prevent contamination of the samples.
Earlier this year scientists working with Nasa announced they too had discovered bacteria living between four and five miles above the Earth’s surface.
Air samples taken from the upper troposphere by an aircraft revealed 314 different types of bacteria in the air above the Atlantic Ocean and the US.
However, they concluded that much of the bacteria, which accounted for 20 per cent of the particles they collected, were thrown up there by the movement of air as hurricanes formed.
A team of British researchers, who are separate from the scientists in Sheffield, have this week also set off on a 2,000 mile expedition to take samples from clouds in an effort to search for signs of life.
The Cloud Lab expedition, which is being filmed by the BBC, will use Nasa instruments to analyse samples for signs bacteria and fungi in clouds at up to 8,000 feet.
It is thought these microorganisms may play a key role in cloud formation by catalysing the formation of ice crystals, leading to water to condense around them to produce clouds.
Many of these organisms would likely fall to earth in rain drops.
Felicity Aston, the lead meteorologist on the Cloud Lab expedition and a former researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, said: “One of the holes in our knowledge about clouds is exactly how a cloud droplet grows and what makes it fall out the sky.
“It is really interesting to look not only at how life is affected by weather but how weather is affected by life – what role do these organisms play in cloud formation.”
Professor Wainwright and his colleagues now hope to carry out further tests using balloons next month to coincide with the Haley's Comet-associated meteorite shower.
Prof Wainwright said that he hoped to conduct tests on any organisms found to help unravel where they are coming from.
He added: "If the ratio of certain isotopes gives one number then our organisms are from Earth, if it gives another, then they are from space.
"The tension will obviously be almost impossible to live with."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10321227/Alien-life-found-living-in-Earths-atmosphere-claims-scientist.html