Oh, is that all?

Cameron is not a scientist, but a proponent of science, as he described at a press conference yesterday. (And scientists need more people like him on their side!) In this role, he hopes to bring science into the popular dialogue and provide tools to scientists—whether that’s funding (through different sources including his Blue Planet Marine Research foundation) or engineering (such as his Deepsea Challenger submersible).

This past March, Cameron and a team of scientists headed to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Using his submersible as well as two unmanned landers, Cameron gradually dove deeper and deeper into the Mariana Trench, collecting samples and video for scientists.

At the AGU meeting, researchers described their findings at these depths and locations. Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spoke of microbial mats and the serpentinization that he witnessed. Doug Bartlett, a microbiologist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, discussed not only the many novel microbes discovered, but also the larger organisms found at some of these depths, including crustaceans, worms, corals and anemones. Patricia Fryer, a geologist from the University of Hawaii, described the tectonic plates, subduction zone and topography at that location.

Together, the findings describe a rich and unique ecosystem. With no other resources to feed the microbes, the researchers propose that the serpentinization on the overriding subduction plate is the energy source for microbes and microbial mats at those depths. Those microbes in turn feed the larger animals seen in the area.

Cameron and the scientists go a step further, suggesting that the serpentinization’s match of geochemistry and biochemistry could be how life began on this planet. And what’s more, this could be how life works in other water bodies in our Solar System and beyond. Cameron named the moons Enceladus, Europa and Callisto as potentially harboring these processes.

We have much to learn about this unusual spot on our planet, 35,630 feet below sea level, and Cameron’s quest is a boon for marine science. Even though the proposed theories about the origin of life seem a bit premature, just focusing on the “unexplored frontiers right here on Earth,” in Cameron’s words, is enough. Isn’t it?

Image: Kmusser/Wikipedia using NOAA data

]]> http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/diving-deep-for-science/559483/feed/ 0 http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/antarctic-lake-life/559419/ http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/antarctic-lake-life/559419/#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:52:54 +0000 molly http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/?p=9419 Think you have it tough in this winter environment? Think again, buddy.

What if you lived in a saltwater lake that was six times saltier than the ocean, and the water was buried under nearly 20 meters (65 feet) of ice? The temperature is a brisk -13°C and oh yeah, we forgot to mention that the lake lacks oxygen and contains high levels of organic carbon.

Sounds pleasant, right? You’re probably thinking nothing can live there. Wrong.

Lake Vida in Antarctica isn’t exactly teeming with life, but life does exist in its harsh environment. Diverse life, in fact. At least eight new species of bacteria call Lake Vida home according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and the Desert Research Institute took samples from the lake in 2005 and 2010, using stringent protocols to avoid contaminating the pristine ecosystem. Scientists estimate that this lake has been isolated from outside influences (including the Sun’s energy!) for almost 3,000 years.

“This study provides a window into one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth,” says lead author Alison Murray. “[It] expands our understanding of the types of life that can survive in these isolated, cryoecosystems and how different strategies may be used to exist in such challenging environments.”

Strategies like food-supply. The researchers have a theory: “Geochemical analyses suggest that chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying sediment generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen,” says co-author Fabien Kenig. “The hydrogen may provide some of the energy needed to support microbes.”

“If that’s the case,” says Murray, “This gives us an entirely new framework for thinking of how life can be supported in cryoecosystems on Earth and in other icy worlds of the Universe.” Think Mars or Europa, says New Scientist.

And also think Vostok and Ellsworth—two more Antarctic lakes that have been isolated millions of years longer than Vida. Scientists are studying those lakes this Antarctic summer. Perhaps they will find life in these harsh conditions, as well?

Image: Peter Glenday, University of Illinois

Uncovering the human microbiome represents a new frontier in science. Thanks to new technology, we’re beginning to understand what these microscopic organisms do, how they do it, and why they exist inside of us.

Last Friday, the awesome Bay Area Science Festival presented “Gut Check: The Hidden World of Microbes.” The panel included two UC San Francisco researchers—our friend, Joe DeRisi, and Michael Fischbach—and science writer extraordinaire, Carl Zimmer. If you follow Zimmer’s Discover blog, The Loom, you know that he loves anything tiny and gross—parasites, bacteria, fungus, the like—so we knew it would be a juicy discussion.

DeRisi developed the ViroChip—a technology that allows scientists to scan samples for several different viruses—over 10,000 things at a time—and bacteria, fungi, and parasites. When Fischbach looks at us, he sees the 100 trillion microorganisms living inside us. These microorganisms make up 10% of our genes, so he uses genome-sequencing technology to study all of them at once.

The following are some of the topics discussed by the panel:

Antibiotics and other Good Bacteria

Fischbach got into human microbiome research looking for drugs. Your gut (and skin and oral) bacteria are natural antibiotics and statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs). They could also possibly control obesity and diabetes. Microbes support your immune system and metabolism, and many of the bacteria in your gut create neurotransmitters, fueling research about how our gut bacteria affect our brains.

Fischbach pointed out how current antibiotics take a “carpet bomb” approach—killing all bacteria in our bodies, good and bad. With more research, he believes that specific good bacteria could target specific bad bacteria—taking a more “scalpel” approach to antibiotics.

Tending the Garden

Among the microorganisms in our body, there are those that help us digest food and create energy and those that just feed themselves. Insoluble fiber may keep us healthy, but we’re not actually absorbing any of it—the microbes keep it all to themselves! As Zimmer said, “You’re not eating it for yourself, but rather tending the garden.” The garden of gut flora.

The Virome

Did you know we have seven trillion viruses in our body when we’re healthy? Some of these viruses attack us and some attack other viruses or bacteria. And, are you ready for this? DeRisi can’t “think of any example of a beneficial virus.” So what are they all doing there? DeRisi has no clue, and every time he sequences he finds new viruses, wondering what role they might play.  Bringing up the question, is there a virome in addition to the biome of the human body?

With trillions of viruses and new ones evolving, does DeRisi lay awake at night in a panic? No. (Phew!)

So whether riding BART or keeping your child in a germ-free environment, the message of the panel was don’t worry about these tiny organisms (at least, for now). More research is needed to find out exactly what kind of tug of war is going on inside of our bodies.

The animals are built like carnivores, too. A genomic study on the wild panda in 2009 proved that that the bears have none of the features that other herbivores (like cows) have to breakdown the tough cellulose fibers of bamboo.

In fact, of the 12.5 kg (27.5 lbs) of bamboo the pandas eat in a day, they’re only able to digest about 17% of it. According to National Geographic News:

This explains why pandas also evolved a sluggish, energy-conserving lifestyle.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to look at the microorganisms that live in the guts of these bears. So they grabbed some panda poop, or, rather, stool samples from seven wild pandas and eight captive pandas. (Their diets vary a bit.)

Analyzing the samples, the researchers found 13 different types of Clostridium-related bacteria, known to breakdown cellulose. Of those, seven were unique to the pandas compared to other mammals. The researchers conclude that these microbes allow the panda to gain extra energy from the bamboo stalks.

Nature News describes this extraordinary feat in context:

These microbes are part of a suite of evolutionary adaptations — alongside powerful jaws and teeth, and pseudo-thumbs, bones that allow them to grip plant stalks — that help pandas to live on bamboo, despite having a carnivore’s digestive system.

The new research is published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image: Mfield, Matthew Field/Wikipedia

Researchers from the University of Alberta found that billions of years before life evolved in the oceans, thin layers of microbial matter in shallow water produced enough oxygen to support tiny, mobile life forms.

Science News puts it eloquently:

Such clumps of oxygen-producing gunk could have supplied the first mobile animals with food to eat and air to breathe.

The researchers say worm-like creatures could have lived on the oxygen produced by photosynthetic microbial material, even though oxygen concentrations in the surrounding water were not high enough to support life. The research was conducted in shallow lagoons in Venezuela where the high salt content is comparable to oceans older than 500 million years.

The link between biomats and animals is demonstrated by the trace-fossil record, which are tracks left behind by the movements of the worm-like creatures. The trace-fossil records for these animals date to at least 555 million years ago when oxygen levels would have been a tenth of what they are now.

These findings suggest that the appearance of animals was not dependent on an oxygenated ocean. Rather, the earliest animals could have lived within photosynthetic biomats and derived life-sustaining oxygen from that source.

The researchers say their work opens the door to the search for life in early periods of Earth’s history when it was believed there was absolutely no oxygen and no chance of finding life.

Image: Stefan Lalonde

The squid are part of an experiment to see if, like some collegiate females on spring break, good bacteria “go wild” in the microgravity of space. Bobtail squid use bacteria called Vibrio fischeri to generate light. According to Discovery News:

That light helps the squid hunt for prey in dark waters. It also provides camouflage from any organisms trying to eat him, because the squid doesn’t cast a telltale shadow on the ocean floor as a result of the moon’s rays shining down into the water.

Previous shuttle experiments have shown what happens to harmful bacteria in space, but this will be the first experiment with beneficial bacteria.  Scientists are hoping that these results with squid will translate to beneficial bacteria with humans.

The NASA press kit reports that worms are part of the mission:

One NASA experiment known as Biology (Bio) will use, among other items, C. elegans worms, that are descendants of worms that survived the STS-107 space shuttle Columbia accident.

Haven’t these worms been through enough?!

Wired UK has a breakdown of other microbes joining STS134:

The microbes on-board Endeavour include the tardigrades (nicknamed Water Bears) which are large extremophiles that can withstand temperatures as biting as absolute zero, and as hot as 150 degrees Celsius. They’re joined by the Deinococcus radiodurans (which NASA dubbed “Conan the Bacterium“) which can survive upward of 15,000 Gy of radiation — 10 Gy is more than enough to kill an average human.

Haloarcula marismortui (Old Salty) loves salt, and lives in levels of high salinity that would kill other organisms. Pyrococcus furiosus (Fire Eater) is all about heat, and thrives in temperatures over 100 degrees Celsius. Cupriavidus metallidurans (which doesn’t have a nickname, unfortunately) plays a vital role in the formation of gold nuggets, thanks to its love of gold tetrachloride: a compound that is toxic to most other microorganisms.

Finally there’s Bacillus subtilis (The Average Joe), which is a model organism used in hundreds of biological experiments. It’s been into space many times before, so it’ll be a good comparison point for other studies.

You know, Dorothy only had lions and tigers and bears to face in Oz…

Image by Hans Hillewaert/Wikimedia

Hazen, on the other hand, believes that most of the oil is gone due to degradation and dilution. He is the lead author of a paper in Science about the amazing microbes that ate much of the oil. In his team’s continuous sampling of 120 sites in the Gulf from May through October 2010, he hasn’t seen much oil– only seven sites that have oil above EPA standards. He admits he may have missed some areas.

While they started the conference by saying they agreed about much, they seemed to disagree about everything brought up: the southeast plume that came out of the well; the oil on the surface, shore, sea floor and water column; the amount of oil that naturally seeps into the Gulf; what did or didn’t happen with the way the oil dispersed after the riser was removed on June 3rd.

Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, spoke after the conference and said that indeed, they were both right, “It’s not a contradiction to say that most of the oil is gone but some still lingers out there.”

(Her conference was actually an announcement of the next step of restoration in the Gulf– you can read more about that here.)

But remember, the press conference was supposed to be on “Deepwater Drilling: Worth the Risk?” Rao did address this issue. He thinks it’s worth it if there were better support onshore for these deepwater wells– with real time data available to experts and regulators, who would be perhaps monitoring several wells at the same time.

Lubchenco was not so certain it was worth the risk, “We must further evaluate the trade-off.”

Two smart reporters, trying to steer the original press conference back on course, asked Hazen if the oil-eating (and Gulf-saving) microbes were present near other sites of deepwater drilling. Some of the bacteria are found in the Arctic, and possibly the Atlantic, as well, Hazen said.

What do you think? Worth the risk? Oil there or gone? Share your thoughts.

(To learn more, you can check out the recent report on the monitoring of the Gulf or Samantha Joye’s blog. Science News also posted an interview with Joye over the weekend.)

Despite being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, we were able to catch incredible glimpses of the solar eclipse this week through photos throughout the web.

DNA sequencing started the year off right. Popular Science reported that “For the First Time, DNA Sequencing Technology Saves A Child’s Life.” Doctors, desperate to find the cause of a boy’s severe illness, sequenced his genes, discovered a mutation and were able to prescribe a treatment that appears to be working. A new machine could make this practice more common. An article in the New York Times this week described a more affordable sequencing machine. At $50,000, the Personal Genome Machine is significantly less than standard machines and “could expand the use of DNA sequencing from specialized centers to smaller university and industrial labs, and into hospitals and doctors’ offices.”

What is causing birds to fall out of the sky and fish to die from Arkansas to Maryland and Brazil to Sweden? Cold weather? Hail storms? Fireworks? The end of the world? There’s been much hype and speculation, but scientists don’t appear to be worried. The Academy’s own Jack Dumbacher is getting samples from the southern occurrences—he’s planning on testing the corpses for viruses. You can track these deaths yourself through Google maps or the US Geological Survey.

Finally, after topping the science news headlines last year, oil in the Gulf reappeared this week, at least on news sites. Have bacteria consumed nearly all of the methane from the spill? A study published in Science this week suggests that’s the case. Ed Yong finds a lot of support for the paper in his blog on Discover; Samantha Joye tells Science News, “Just because you can’t find methane in the spot where you lowered your [instruments] doesn’t mean there’s no methane out there somewhere.”

Also, the president’s oil spill commission released the first chapter of its report this week. (The entire report will be available next week.) An excerpt from the chapter in Science Insider reports that the blame for the disaster can be shared among the companies responsible for the well.

Most of the mistakes and oversights at Macondo can be traced back to a single overarching failure—a failure of management.

And sadly, this may not be an unusual event, according to the New York Times:

The commission warned that without major changes, another such accident was likely.

If you want a front seat on a Gulf of Mexico recovery expedition, follow Sylvia Earle and others on National Geographic News Watch this month.

What science news did you dive into this week? Share with us!

Image by Brydzo/Wikimedia

Earth

The Gulf oil spill—the number of gallons spilled and the controversy surrounding the damage seems to top many lists this year. Nature even named Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, its newsmaker of the year for how she handled the crisis.

Natural disasters often took the front page in 2010 with the Haitian earthquake and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull topping many lists. The hard-to-pronounce Icelandic volcano also made many of the best science images of the year lists.

DiscoveryNews ends the year on a positive note with “How Humans Helped the Earth in 2010,” a slide show with text concerning recent strides in alternative energy, species and habitat conservation efforts and individual efforts to go green (electric cars, white roofs and saving energy).

For more environmental news of the year, New Scientist’s Short Sharp Science has a great review and the Nature Conservancy has a best/worst list on its site.

Life

Teeny, modified life stole the spotlight this year—the J. Craig Venter Institute’s so-called “synthetic cell” and GFAJ-1—the bacteria that incorporates arsenic into its DNA—or so NASA scientists claimed.  Science writer Carl Zimmer discredited the arsenic bacteria paper on Slate; NASA author Felisa Wolfe-Simon defended herself in Science. Fun stuff!

The spread of pesky bedbugs was number six in Discover’s “Top 100 Science Stories of 2010.”

Nature’s great article this past summer on eradicating mosquitoes was among its readers’ top choices of the year.

Looking for something a little bigger and less controversial? New Scientist has “The coolest animals of 2010,” which includes a scorpion-eating bat and a fly thought to be extinct for over 160 years!

NPR found it was a very good year for Neanderthals—their genome was sequenced, brain examined and diet expanded.

Remarkably, the Census of Marine Life tops the BP oil spill in the Deep Type Flow blog’s biggest marine science stories of the year for its sheer numbers:

…over 500 research expeditions covering every ocean, over 2,500 scientists and the discovery of over 6,000 species new to science and published in over 2600 peer-reviewed papers.

Space

ScienceNow’s most popular story of all time, not just 2010, was “Does Our Universe Live Inside a Wormhole?” A wonderful theory that we also covered last spring.

Exoplanets, in part thanks to the Kepler mission, were all over the news this year—whether it had to do with size, atmosphere or number within a star system. Discover’s interview with local exoplanet hunter (and California Academy of Sciences Fellow) Geoff Marcy made number 11(!) on their 100 top stories list.

A little closer to home, Jupiter’s missing stripe and Neptune’s tale of cannibalism are included in New Scientist’s most popular space stories of 2010.

Our Moon and Saturn’s moons made news throughout the year and the top lists on Universe Today and Wired this week.

Universe Today also included SDO’s new views of the sun in their top stories list. Stunning!

Hubble celebrated its 20^th year in space this year by taking even more beautiful images. Several are included in Bad Astronomy’s “Top 14 Astronomy Pictures of 2010.”

Technology

Electric cars and NASA’s new foray into commercial spacecraft are included in Scientific American’s top ten stories of the year.

The Large Hadron Collider was very busy this year, and topped many lists. Another machine at CERN made news (and also topped Nature’s readers’ choice list) when it was able to capture antimatter for a sixth of a second!

Graphene not only garnered a Nobel Prize this year, the material (and it’s potential) also made news and top science lists of the year.

DiscoveryNews put plastics on their 2010 list—whether its finding new ways of removing plastic from the oceans or engineering smarter plastics.

What was your favorite science story of the year? Share with us by adding it to the comment section below!

Image by Les Stone, International Bird Rescue Research Center/Wikipedia