Latest news with #microorganisms
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
How did life survive 'Snowball Earth'? In ponds, study suggests
Earth has not always been so hospitable to live. During several ice ages, the planet's surface was almost completely frozen over, creating what has been dubbed "Snowball Earth". Liquid water appears to be the most important ingredient for life on any planet, raising the question: how did anything survive such frosty, brutal times? A group of scientists said Thursday that they had found an astonishing diversity of micro-organisms in tiny pools of melted ice in Antarctica, suggesting that life could have ridden out Snowball Earth in similar ponds. During the Cryogenian Period between 635 and 720 million years ago, the average global temperature did not rise above -50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit). The climate near the equator at the time resembled modern-day Antarctica. Yet even in such extreme conditions, life found a way to keep evolving. Fatima Husain, the lead author of a new study published in Nature Communications, told AFP there was evidence of complex life forms "before and after the Cryogenian in the fossil record". "There are multiple hypotheses regarding possible places life may have persisted," said Husain, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Perhaps it found shelter in patches of open ocean, or in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, or under vast sheets of ice. The tiny melted ice pools that dotted the equator were another proposed refuge. These ponds could have been oases for eukaryotes, complex organisms that eventually evolved into multicellular life forms that would rise to dominate Earth, including humans. - Could aliens be hiding in ponds? - Melted ice ponds still exist today in Antarctica, at the edges of ice sheets. In 2018, members of a New Zealand research team visited the McMurdo ice shelf in east Antarctica, home to several such pools, which are only a few metres wide and less a metre deep. The bottom of the ponds are lined with a mat of microbes that have accumulated over the years to form slimy layers. "These mats can be a few centimetres thick, colourful, and they can be very clearly layered," Husain said. They are made up of single-celled organisms called cyanobacteria that are known to be able to survive extreme conditions. But the researchers also found signs indicating there were eukaryotes such as algae or microscopic animals. This suggests there was surprising diversity in the ponds, which appears to have been influenced by the amount of salt each contained. "No two ponds were alike," Husain said. "We found diverse assemblages of eukaryotes from all the major groups in all the ponds studied." "They demonstrate that these unique environments are capable of sheltering diverse assemblages of life, even in close proximity," she added. This could have implications in the search for extraterrestrial life. "Studies of life within these special environments on Earth can help inform our understanding of potential habitable environments on icy worlds, including icy moons in our Solar System," Husain said. Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's Europa are covered in ice, but scientists increasingly suspect they could be home to simple forms of life, and several space missions have been launched to find out more about them. ber/dl/js
BBC News
11-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Weather makers: How microbes living in the clouds affect our lives
Trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses and single-celled organisms travel the globe high in the atmosphere. Scientists are discovering they play a vital role in the weather and even our health. Clouds are our lifelong companions. Sometimes they drift overhead as wispy filigrees. On other days, they darken the sky and dump rain on us. But for all our familiarity with these veils of water vapour, they have been keeping a secret from us. Clouds are actually floating islands of life, home to trillions of organisms from thousands of species. Along with birds and dragonflies and dandelion seeds, a vast ocean of microscopic organisms travels through the air. The French chemist Louis Pasteur was among the first scientists to recognise what scientists now call the aerobiome in 1860. He held up sterile flasks of broth and allowed floating germs to settle into them, turning the clear broth cloudy. Pasteur captured germs on the streets of Paris, in the French countryside and even on top of a glacier in the Alps. But his contemporaries balked at the idea. "The world into which you wish to take us is really too fantastic," one journalist told Pasteur at the time. It took decades for people to accept the reality of the aerobiome. In the 1930s, a few scientists took to the sky in airplanes, holding out slides and Petri dishes to catch fungal spores and bacteria in the wind. Balloon expeditions to the stratosphere captured cells there as well. Today, 21st-Century aerobiologists deploy sophisticated air-samplers on drones and use DNA-sequencing technology to identify airborne life by its genes. The aerobiome, researchers now recognise, is an enormous habitat filled only with visitors. Those visitors come from much of the planet's surface. Each time an ocean wave crashes, it hurls fine droplets of sea water into the air, some of which carry viruses, bacteria, algae and other single-celled organisms. While some of the droplets fall quickly back to the ocean, some get picked up by winds and rise up into the sky, where they can be carried for thousands of miles. On land, winds can scour the ground, lofting bacteria and fungi and other organisms. Each morning when the sun rises and water evaporates into the air, it can draw up microscopic organisms as well. Forest fires create violent updrafts that can suck microbes out of the ground and strip them off the trunks and leaves of trees, carrying them upwards with the rising smoke. Many species do not simply wait for physical forces to launch them into the air. Mosses, for example, grow a stalk with a pouch of spores at the tip, which they release like puffs of smoke into the air. As many as six million moss spores may fall on a single square metre of bog over the course of one summer. Many species of pollinating plants have sex by releasing billions of airbourne pollen grains each spring. Fungi are particularly adept at flight. They have evolved biological cannons and other means for blasting their spores into the air, and their spores are equipped with tough shells and other adaptations to endure the harsh conditions they encounter as they travel as high as the stratosphere. Fungi have been found up to 12 miles (20km) up, high above the open ocean of the Pacific, carried there on the wind. By one estimate about a trillion trillion bacterial cells rise each year from the land and sea into the sky. By another estimate, 50 million tonnes of fungal spores become airborne in that same time. Untold numbers of viruses, lichen, algae and other microscopic life forms also rise into the air. It's common for them to travel for days before landing, in which time they can soar for hundreds or thousands of miles. During that odyssey, an organism may fly into a region of the air where the water vapor is condensing into droplets. It soon finds itself enveloped in one of those droplets, and updrafts may carry it up deeper inside the water mass. It has entered the heart of a cloud. Much of what scientists have learned about the life in clouds has come from the top of a mountain in France called Puy de Dôme. It formed about 11,000 years ago when a fist of magma punched up into the rolling hills of central France, creating a volcano that spilled out lava before going dormant just a few hundred years later. For the past twenty years or so, a weather station on top of Puy de Dôme has been equipped with air samplers. The mountain is so high that clouds regularly blanket its peak, allowing scientists to capture some of the life they ferry. Studies led by Pierre Amato, an aerobiologist at the nearby University of Clermont Auvergne, have revealed that every millimeter of cloud water floating over Puy de Dôme contains as many as 100,000 cells. Their DNA has revealed that some belong to familiar species, but many are new to science. Scientists who use DNA to identify species are perpetually anxious about contamination, and Amato is no exception. A hawk soaring over Puy de Dôme might fly over Amato's tubes and shake microbes off its feathers, for example. In Amato's laboratory, a graduate student may exhale germs into a test tube. Over the years, Amato has rejected thousands of potential species, suspicious that he or his students have inadvertently smeared skin microbes onto the equipment. But they have confidently discovered over 28,000 species of bacteria in clouds, and over 2,600 species of fungi. Amato and other scientists who study clouds suspect that they may be particularly good places for bacteria to survive – at least for some species. "Clouds are environments open to all, but where only some can thrive," Amato and a team of colleagues wrote in 2017. For bacteria, a cloud is like an alien world, dramatically different from the habitats where they usually live on land or at sea. Bacteria typically crowd together. In rivers they may grow into microbial mats. In our guts, they form dense films. But in a cloud, each microbe exists in perfect solitude, trapped in its own droplet. That isolation means that cloud bacteria don't have to compete with each other for limited resources. But a droplet doesn't have much room to carry the nutrients microbes need to grow. Yet Amato and his colleagues have found evidence that some microbes can indeed grow in clouds. In one study, the researchers compared samples they gathered from clouds on Puy de Dôme to others they collected on the mountain on clear days. The researchers looked for clues to their activity by comparing the amount of DNA in their samples to the amount of RNA. Active, growing cells will make a lot of copies of RNA from their DNA in order to produce proteins. The researchers found that the ratio of RNA to DNA was several times higher in clouds than in clear air, a powerful clue that cells thrive in clouds. They also found that bacteria in clouds switch on genes essential for metabolising food and for growing. To understand how these bacteria can thrive in clouds, the researchers have reared some of the species they've captured in their lab and then sprayed them into atmospheric simulation chambers. One kind of microbe, known as Methylobacterium, uses the energy in sunlight to break down organic carbon inside cloud droplets. In other words, these bacteria eat clouds. By one estimate, cloud microbes break down a million tons of organic carbon worldwide every year. Findings such as these suggest that the aerobiome is a force to be reckoned with – one that exerts a powerful influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere. The aerobiome even alters the weather. As a cloud forms, it creates updrafts that lift water-laden air to high altitudes that are cold enough to turn the water to ice. The ice then falls back down. If the air near the ground is cold, it may land as snow. If it is warm, it turns to rain. It can be surprisingly hard for ice to form in a frigid cloud. Even at temperatures far below the freezing point, water molecules can remain liquid. One way to trigger the formation of ice, however, is to give them a seed of impurity. As water molecules stick to a particle's surface, they bond to one another, a process known as nucleation. Other water molecules then lock onto them and assemble into a crystal structure, which when heavy enough, will fall out of the sky. It turns out that biological molecules and cell walls are exceptionally good at triggering rain. Fungi, algae, pollen, lichens, bacteria and even viruses can seed ice in clouds. It's even possible that clouds and life are linked in an intimate cycle, not just living and devouring the clouds, but helping them to form in the first place. One of the best rainmakers is a type of bacteria called Pseudomonas. Scientists are not sure why those bacteria in particular are so good at forming ice in clouds, but it could have to do with the way they grow on leaves. When cold rain falls on a leaf, Pseudomonas may help the liquid water to turn to ice at higher temperatures than it normally would. As the ice cracks open the leaves, the bacteria can feast on the nutrients inside. Some scientists have even speculated that plants welcome bacteria like Pseudomonas, despite the damage they cause. As the wind blows the bacteria off the plants and lofts them into the air, they rise into clouds overhead. Clouds seeded with Pseudomonas pour down more rain on the plants below. The plants use the water to grow more leaves, and the leaves support more bacteria, which rise into the sky and spur clouds to rain down even more water to nurture life below. If it turns out to be true, it would be a majestic symbiosis, connecting forests to the sky. Research on the life in clouds also raises the possibility that airborne organisms might exist on other planets – even ones that might seem the worst places for life to survive. Venus, for example, has a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead. But the clouds that blanket Venus are much cooler, and perhaps able to sustain life. Sara Seager, an astrobiologist at MIT, has speculated that life might have arisen on the surface of Venus early in its history, when it was cooler and wetter. As the planet heated up, some microbes could have found refuge in the clouds. Instead of sinking back to the surface, they may have bobbed up and down in the atmosphere, riding currents for millions of years, she says. Thinking about Seager's alien aerobiome can make cloud-gazing even more enjoyable. But when we look at clouds, Amato's research has revealed, we are also looking up at our own influence on the world. When Amato and his colleagues have surveyed the genes in the microbes they capture, they find a remarkable number that endow bacteria with resistance to antibiotics. Down on the ground, we humans have spurred the widespread evolution of these resistance genes. By taking excessive amounts of penicillin and other drugs to fight infections, we favour mutants that can withstand them. Making matters worse, farmers feed antibiotics to chickens, pigs and other livestock in order to get them to grow to bigger sizes. In 2014 alone, 700,000 people died worldwide from infections of antibiotic‑resistant bacteria. Five years later, the toll rose to 1.27 million. The evolution of antibiotic resistance occurs within the bodies of humans and the animals humans eat. The bacteria endowed with this resistance then escape their nurseries and make their way through the environment – into the soil, into streams, and it turns out, even into the air. Researchers have found high levels of resistance genes in the bacteria floating through hospitals and around pig farms. But airborne resistance genes can waft even further. An international team of scientists inspected the filters in automobile air conditioners in nineteen cities around the world. The filters had captured a rich diversity of resistant bacteria. It appears, in other words, that resistance genes float through cities. In recent years, Amato and his colleagues have charted even longer journeys. In a 2023 survey of clouds, they reported finding bacteria carrying 29 different kinds of resistance genes. A single airborne bacterium may carry as many as nine resistance genes, each providing a different defense against the drugs. Every cubic metre of cloud, they estimated, held up to 10,000 resistance genes. A typical cloud floating overhead may hold more than a trillion of them. Amato and his colleagues speculate that clouds hold such a high number of resistance genes because they can help the bacteria survive there. Some genes provide antibiotic resistance by allowing bacteria to pump the drugs out of their interiors quickly, getting rid of them before they can cause damage. The stress of life in a cloud may cause bacteria to produce toxic waste that they need to pump out quickly as well. Clouds may be able to spread these resistance genes farther than contaminated meat and water. Once in a cloud, bacteria can travel hundreds of miles in a matter of days before seeding a raindrop and falling back to Earth. When they reach the ground, the microbes may then pass along their resistance genes to other microbes they encounter. Every year, Amato and his colleagues estimate, 2.2 trillion trillion resistance genes shower down from the clouds. It is a sobering thought to hold in one's mind on a walk through the rain. We walk through downpours of DNA of our own making. * Carl Zimmer's latest book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe is out now. -- For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Telegraph
07-06-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Art-eating fungus attacks Rome's ancient underground frescoes
A devastating infestation of microbugs is damaging the treasured underground frescoes that decorate the labyrinths of ancient catacombs beneath Rome. A vast network of tunnels, dug into the soft, porous tufa rock that underlies much of the city, was created in the early Christian era for the burial of the dead. They were also used as clandestine meeting places at a time when Christians were persecuted by Rome's emperors. But the colourful frescoes that adorn the ceilings and walls of the catacombs are being eaten away by microorganisms, a phenomenon that experts say is being accelerated by climate change. Rising temperatures have increased humidity levels inside the underground burial sites, encouraging the growth of bacteria, moss and fungus. The alarm about the rampant art-eating fungus has been raised by a Vatican department, the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. 'The survival of frescoes which were created 2,000 years ago is at risk,' said Monsignor Pasquale Iacobone, the head of the department. 'There is an increase in the proliferation of vegetation, and the damage is unprecedented. It's the effect of climate change and the increase in outside temperatures.' Ancient Romans, who cremated their dead, banned Christians from burying corpses within the walls of the capital. So the Christians instead dug underground passageways for the interment of their dead, eventually excavating around 300 km of tunnels beneath Rome. They wrapped the dead in shrouds and laid them to rest in rectangular niches that were carved out of the tunnel walls. Among the treasures under threat are striking frescoes in the San Callisto Catacomb, which mark some of the earliest surviving examples of Christian art. San Callisto, the biggest and most famous of Rome's catacombs, was established in the second century AD and contained the remains of about half a million people, as well as seven popes who were martyred in the third century AD. 'Along with the six catacombs that are open to the public, the problem is affecting all 400 of the decorated chambers that exist in Rome's 60 catacombs. We are seeing an unexpected increase in biological infestations,' Barbara Mazzei, an archaeologist and an expert on the catacombs, told Corriere della Sera newspaper. While the problem underground is high humidity, the issue above ground is a lack of moisture – high temperatures and drought conditions mean that trees are sinking their roots deeper, breaking through the ceilings of the catacombs and penetrating the frescoes. The confined, subterranean nature of catacombs and the lack of ventilation mean that it is hard for experts to use chemicals such as biocides to combat the growth of bacteria and mould. Instead, they are experimenting with natural products that are not harmful to humans, including essential oils made from lavender, thyme and cinnamon. The threats faced by the catacombs were revealed at a seminar in Rome organised by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Many of the catacombs lie beneath the Appian Way, the 'regina viarum' or 'queen of roads' that once ran from Rome to the distant port of Brindisi on the Adriatic coast. In 2010, the earliest known icons of four of Christ's apostles were discovered on the ceiling of an elaborately decorated chamber in a catacomb beneath the streets of Rome. Scientists used advanced laser technology to remove a hardened crust of dirt and calcium deposits to bring to light the brightly coloured fourth-century paintings of Saints John, Paul, Andrew and Peter. The images adorn the ceiling of a vault, carved out of volcanic rock, which provided the last resting place of a rich Roman noblewoman who converted to Christianity. Archaeologists also found an early image of Christ, a painting of a naked Daniel with lions at his feet and a sketch of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The catacombs of Santa Tecla, a labyrinth of tunnels, galleries and burial chambers, lie hidden beneath a five-storey office in Ostiense, a residential area of Rome.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Furniture brand shocks industry with futuristic innovation that destroys its own products: 'We wanted to get to the next level'
If self-cannibalizing furniture sounds far-fetched, think again: A new ingredient in plastic is making that a reality. After years of experimenting with sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic, high-end plastic furniture maker Heller has introduced an enzyme to accelerate the decomposition process. Fast Company reported on the development, which marks a revolutionary milestone for both the furniture industry and the future of plastic waste. The enzyme, which is mixed into the plastic in powdered form, essentially turns the plastic into something appetizing for microorganisms to eat, accelerating a naturally occurring process. It was developed by the research company Worry Free Plastics. Crucially for the indoor-outdoor furniture maker, the enzyme only activates when the furniture is in a zero-oxygen environment — such as a landfill, the ocean, or even soil. From day to day, it remains solid; in a zero-oxygen environment, according to the company, it will degrade in approximately five years. This is an incredible improvement on the typical decomposition of plastic, as a piece of plastic can take up to 500 years to degrade, per the United Nations. Even then, it just breaks down into microplastics and chemicals, contaminating the water and soil in its surroundings. When microorganisms process this plastic, the only byproduct is biogas and nutrient-rich soil — and it happens on a remarkably quick timeline. Worry Free Plastics estimates that its enzyme could help a plastic bottle degrade in approximately seven and a half years and a plastic bag in five. John Edelman, president and CEO of Heller, said that simply looking at recycled plastics wasn't enough to meet the company's environmental goals. "We wanted to get to the next level and become more sustainable," he said, per Fast Company. "How can we be good for the planet and create incredible design?" Even better for consumers, the new biodegradability won't change the price tag. "It's a drop-in technology," said Philip Myers, Worry Free Plastics co-founder. "It doesn't require them to change their equipment, their process — anything. It's plug and play." Heller introduced the enzyme to its production line in November, and the company expects the new products to completely replace old inventory in the coming months to years. "My goal is to do something that is sustainable and at the same price," Edelman said. "We actually achieved our goal of not just using recycled products, not just being recyclable, but going back to the earth." If self-destroying plastic isn't available, opting for plastic-free alternatives for everyday products is a great way to reduce your own plastic pollution and help create a cleaner world. Which of these factors would be your biggest motivator in buying eco-friendly furniture? Durable materials Chic design Lower price Not interested Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Associated Press
20-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Global Biosurfactants Market Report 2025-2035, with Profiles of 20+ Players including AGAE Technologies, AmphiStar, Biotensidion, Dispersa, Givaudan, Holiferm, Jeneil Biotec, Locus Ingredients & more
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2025-- The 'Global Biosurfactants Market 2025-2035" report has been added to offering. The global biosurfactants market is experiencing robust growth, driven by increasing environmental concerns, stringent regulations on synthetic surfactants, and rising consumer demand for sustainable products. Biosurfactants - surface-active compounds produced by microorganisms - represent a significant advancement in green chemistry, offering biodegradable and environmentally friendly alternatives to petroleum-based surfactants across diverse industries. Glycolipids, particularly rhamnolipids and sophorolipids, dominate the market, owing to their versatile applications and relatively advanced production technologies. The household and personal care segment represents the largest application area, followed by industrial applications, food processing, and agriculture. The production technology landscape is evolving rapidly, with significant advancements in fermentation processes, genetic engineering of producer strains, and downstream processing techniques. These innovations are gradually addressing the historical challenges of high production costs and scalability limitations. The integration of waste streams and by-products as fermentation feedstocks is further enhancing the sustainability profile and economic viability of biosurfactant production. Key market drivers include the phasing out of harmful synthetic surfactants under various regulatory frameworks, growing consumer preference for bio-based products, expanding application scope in industries seeking sustainable solutions, and technological advancements reducing production costs. However, challenges persist, including still-higher production costs compared to synthetic alternatives, inconsistent raw material availability, and performance limitations in certain high-demand applications. The future outlook for the biosurfactants market remains exceptionally positive, with significant growth potential in emerging applications such as enhanced oil recovery, biomedical applications, nanotechnology, and advanced materials. The development of next-generation production platforms utilizing synthetic biology and continuous manufacturing approaches promises to further reduce costs and expand the commercial viability of biosurfactants across additional market segments. As sustainability becomes an increasingly critical factor in consumer and industrial purchasing decisions, biosurfactants are well-positioned to capture market share from conventional surfactants, representing one of the most promising segments within the broader green chemicals industry. The Global Biosurfactants Market 2025-2035 report provides an in-depth analysis of the rapidly evolving global biosurfactants market from 2025 to 2035. As environmental regulations tighten and consumer preferences shift toward sustainable alternatives, biosurfactants are emerging as critical replacements for traditional petroleum-based surfactants across diverse industries. This report explores how these microbially-produced, biodegradable surface-active compounds are reshaping markets from household products to advanced industrial applications, pharmaceutical developments, and environmental remediation. The report examines the transition from conventional glycolipids and lipopeptides to novel biosurfactant classes and custom-designed molecules, analyzing how improved fermentation processes, genetic engineering, and waste-derived feedstocks are revolutionizing production economics and expanding application potential. Key Report Highlights: The report comprehensively covers: Company Coverage Includes: For more information about this report visit About is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. View source version on CONTACT: Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 KEYWORD: INDUSTRY KEYWORD: CHEMICALS/PLASTICS MANUFACTURING SOURCE: Research and Markets Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/20/2025 08:01 AM/DISC: 05/20/2025 08:01 AM
