Deep Life
The Hunt for the Hidden Biology of Earth, Mars, and Beyond
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- 20,99 €
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- 20,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
The thrilling quest for subsurface life on Earth and other planets
Deep Life takes readers to uncharted regions deep beneath Earth's crust in search of life in extreme environments and reveals how astonishing new discoveries by geomicrobiologists are helping the quest to find life in the solar system.
Tullis Onstott, named one of the 100 most influential people in America by Time magazine, provides an insider’s look at the pioneering fieldwork that is shining vital new light on Earth’s hidden biology—a thriving subterranean biosphere that scientists once thought to be impossible. Come along on epic descents two miles underground into South African gold mines to experience the challenges that Onstott and his team had to overcome. Join them in their search for microbes in the ancient seabed below the desert floor in the American Southwest, and travel deep beneath the frozen wastelands of the Arctic tundra to discover life as it could exist on Mars.
Blending cutting-edge science with thrilling scientific adventure, Deep Life features rare and unusual encounters with exotic life forms, including a bacterium living off radiation and a hermaphroditic troglodytic worm that has changed our understanding of how complex subsurface life can really be. This unforgettable book takes you to the absolute limits of life—the biotic fringe—where today’s scientists hope to discover the very origins of life itself.
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"We must always be prepared to be surprised," writes Princeton geoscientist Onstott as he ventures into the world of "subterranauts," creatures that inhabit underground regions that were previously thought inhospitable to life. He exhaustively details some of the expeditions that are leading scientists to overturn the dogma that all life needs the sun. Chemolithoautotrophs, for example, do not; they create energy by splitting minerals. Such extremophiles offer clues to what extraterrestrial life might be like, so Onstott travels beneath Earth's hottest spots (Africa) and coldest spots (the Arctic) to learn more about them. He colorfully describes these almost primordial worlds: mines where one can find "mushrooms the size of hubcaps," an Arctic tunnel in which hangs "one ice chandelier after another," and caves that feature biofilms wafting across underground lakes in "massive rafts" or hanging off walls like a living Jackson Pollock painting. A colleague's discovery of a microscopic worm a mile below earth was "like finding Moby Dick swimming around in Lake Ontario" a discovery with "enormous implications." Onstott himself found bacteria living on "radioactive water." Onstott's writing can be jargon heavy, but he so beautifully conveys his excitement that laypeople and scientists alike will find it a worthwhile read. Photos.
