Life in solid ice
Abstract
Some microbes appear to be able to metabolize in glacial ice or permafrost. The rate depends on temperature, nutrient level, and bioelement availability, among other factors. I have developed a plausible argument that they do this while confined in veins filled with acidic or saline solution that provides nutrients and elements necessary for growth. Here I develop this scenario further and discuss some of its implications for ice-covered planetary bodies and for the the origin of life. An accompanying paper in the conference proceedings (Bay et al.) discusses plans to test this hypothesis using epifluorescence microscopy of pristine, unmelted ice samples and an optical biospectrologging tool to assay living and dead microbes in boreholes in glacial ice.
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