I learned something today in #astrobiology that just totally blew my mind.
There are microbes that eat....air. And can live on just....air.

[thread]
These microbes live in cold deserts...I mean really brutal cold deserts. Barren rocky ridges (not even tundra) in Antarctica.
There's really no free water - very dry. And dark for 6 months, too. So these microbes live where there isn't enough water for photosynthesis producers.
They live on the trace amounts hydrogen gas (H2) in the atmosphere (about 190 parts per BILLION), and CO (20 parts per BILLION). So these things are living on tiny tiny tiny amounts of stuff.
But...they are still living.
These bacterial communities have Actinobacteria. It's a big family, that includes some that can survive extreme environments like in ice. Here is a Wikipedia image of an Actinobacteria:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinobac…
These bacteria have a special modification of an enzyme called RuBisCO. RuBisCO is probably the most important enzyme on Earth. It is used to fix CO2 into sugars, when then is used to make everything else. (50% of leaf protein is RuBisCO) More here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuBisCO
And if you want to get all hardcore and explore the enzyme structure in detail, check out the RCSB molecule-of-the-month on RuBisCO (structures 8RUC and 1RCX, hyperlinks in the text!):
pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/11
But these bacteria have modified versions of RuBisCO. They have a "type 1E" version, which when coupled up with hydrogenase enzymes (which they have) and carbon monoxide dehydgorenases (got that too.) let them eat that trace amount of hydrogen.
(Type 1E is not found in plants.)
So they get energy (and protons) from hydrogen. Then the carbon from CO and CO2. And along the way, the split oxygen and hydrogen makes water, so they really don't need extra water.
Oh, and community genetic analysis shows nitrogen fixation, too. So N2 in atmosphere gets used.
There is a great diagram in the discovery article by Li et al., Nature (2017), it's open-access so check it out:
nature.com/articles/natur…

Totally check out Figure 4 on the third page. Basically "air" --> "biostuff"

HOW TOTALLY AWESOME IS THAT????!!!!!
So these microbes don't need organics or sunlight to do their stuff. Just a few trace soil elements that aren't carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, an hydrogen - they get those elements and energy from THE AIR!!!!
So...the mindblowing bit is now you can imagine just those trace basic things H2, CO, CO2 in the deep subsurface ocean of an Ocean World. And that is just enough for these microbes to survive, get energy, nutrients, and most stuff they need to build bodies and reproduce.
And....now me going wild. If you don't need a lot of surface stuff, and can live on just air. Can you now imagine a biology that only lives in the clouds?
And this is where I tease y'all, (no patreon or anything), but the next seminar series for the Network of Ocean Worlds (@Ocean_Worlds) will feature Dr. David J. Smith of NASA Ames who will be talking about microbial life in Earth's stratosphere.
nasa.gov/ames/research/…
(and no, that hadn't officially been announced yet. And yes, I just let the cat out of the bag. And yes, they will be announcing just as soon as I send the email saying the speakers accepted to present. We will also feature Prof. Juan Lora of Yale talking about Titan atmosphere.)
So the whole atmosphere coupling to the cryosphere is a big deal and it is just AMAZING how the limits of life get stretched every time we explore.
[/End thread]
Gahhhh! Forgot! Here is a link to the Network for Ocean Worlds seminar series website. We've got the first three seminars already there (hosted on YouTube) so you can watch at your leisure.
oceanworlds.space/now-seminars/

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More from @mike_malaska

6 Jun
@mikamckinnon @SiO2moyer @justinboldaji Carlsbad and Lechuguilla Caves have a really wierd and fascinating geology history. They were made by bacteria!
@mikamckinnon @SiO2moyer @justinboldaji The story goes like this. Gypsum laid down. Then...thick thick limestone laid down on top of that. Way way down deep, microbes eat gypsum, H2S bubbles up. (Microbes reduce sulfate). ((there might be other ways H2S bubbles up.)) That gets H2S percolating up into the limestone.
@mikamckinnon @SiO2moyer @justinboldaji Then, up higher in the limestone layers, there are places where oxygen in water mixes with H2S charged waters. Some bacteria love this! They can eat H2S in the water and combine with O2 in the water and get energy!!!
They pee out sulfuric acid! (H2SO4)
Read 15 tweets
22 Mar
Picking up thread: Beginning Gardening - What exactly to plant.

(Thread part 2)
Gonna go in order of time-to-first harvest. Lettuce is fast.
Warm season lettuce: Nevada and Tropicana
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22 Mar
Did you ever want to take up vegetable gardening, but worried you didn't have a green thumb?

Read on. (Thread).

(Looks like we are all in for the Long haul. So a hobby whee you grow your own food seems like a timely idea...)
Why am I qualified to talk about this?Well, before I came to JPL I grew about 30% of my food for several years.
I wasn't a hobby, it was an obsession.
And I had spreadsheets.
I grew berries, fruits, summer crops, winter crops. All of it.
My spreadsheet had over 1000 entries.
And I can tell you all my mistakes and have you harvesting your own food in about a month.
Read 38 tweets
20 Mar
Stuff getting real. Phone rings. Call from Representative Adam Schiff (we're in his district). Group telecon. Here is delayed transcription.
All of California now in "stay at home" order was 30 min ago. (now, 1 h 30 min ago.)
Basic health info:
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Read 41 tweets
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Soap! #Science As promised! But first, here's an easy way to make it. We're gonna make a "tertiary" soap using leftover scraps of soap. (did you save them up last week?)
This'll be super easy.
What you need:
leftover soap scraps (total enough to make a small bar)
yogurt container (8 oz. size)
microwave oven
freezer
cheese grater (optional)
What you do:
grate up all your soap scraps. put them in the bottom of the empty clean yogurt container so maybe 1/2 inch deep. (you can crumble them up too, but the grater will make it much easier).
Add a tiny bit of water, maybe enough to wet the grated soap about half way up.
Read 10 tweets
29 Feb
Are viruses alive?
(Here is the thread y’all have been waiting for….)

Our survey says…..Yes! They are!

What do I think? Mmmmmm. No. they are not….well..sorta.
But no.

Digging into the big #science questions of #astrobiology
(Thread)
Definition of life is pretty fuzzy. Seems like its easy “yes or no” but IMHO it’s a big wonderfully complex beautiful spectrum. And by thinking about it, and how we would measure it, we can make better tests for detecting “life” on alien worlds, with alien biochemistries.
Here is a great link on “life” from NASA Astrobiology: nasa.gov/vision/univers…
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