A glimpse of true hydrogen based life forms?

Tiny organisms were recently discovered in brine lakes holding no oxygen.

The implications are complex and span into all sorts of topics Lets find some and talk about it...

Hydrogen Bombshells

What kind of implications come to mind when you read this?

EDIT:
I posted this link farther down. But decided I wanted it in the first post to ensure people might see it. The pictures themselves are mind boggling.
Rivers under the ocean.


[edit on 12-8-2010 by lordtyp0]

What I find really fascinating here is that the 'lake' they're talking about is 3.5km below sea level!

It's an area of high salinity (salt content) water, that because of the different physical properties, doesn't mix with the surrounding water. An isolated bubble.

How many of these little isolated ecosystems are there under the sea? It's easy to picture the oceans as one big bowl of soup, but clearly that's not the case.

These places are just stunning. Some areas make me think the world contains a sample of everything possible in the universe. Just in smaller settings.

(edit)
The pics etc. are not relevant to this article outside of the fact they show underwater rivers and lakes

[edit on 12-8-2010 by lordtyp0]

I swear I saw a documentary many years back where a cave was found that was isolated by water and inside there were nitrogen based lifeforms. Apparently I dreampt that up as I have never heard of it since but this gives me new hope that there really are exciting finds like this.

edit to add: Those pics are amazing!


[edit on 12-8-2010 by c g henderson]

reply to post by c g henderson


Nitrogen would be an interesting setup. Really the only reason Oxygen is needed (breathable anyway) is the creb cycle: The oxygen gives the chemical potential in the form of... well basically kinetic. Moves along and makes the ATP via the chemical charge.

If you have another chemical setup to offer the charge, you wouldn't need oxygen or mitochondria.

reply to post by lordtyp0


Interesting. I really know nothing at all about any of it other than the fact that anything new we learn about how life can form and/or exist opens up the possibility for all kinds of new life forms and that excites me. Thanks for the response.

WW

that makes sense!

hydrogen is the first element in the stellar repertoire of chemical manufacturing, after all.

and as the article reminds us, the Earth was devoid of oxygen until AFTER the first life forms came into being in order to excrete oxygen into the environment.

thinking about the Cambrian explosion, it seems that if you want BIG life, full of power and robust, then you want to add oxygen as the energy source - life then TAKES of the oxygen in order to have energy for life.

but when it is through hydrogen that life has energy for life, it is GIVING that hydrogen to the environment, because it is the making of it which provides the energy.

that one kind of goes over my head at the moment.

but i've been thinking about hydrogen a lot lately - it seems to be the underlying commonality in many mysterious concepts including things to do with physics and metaphysics.

it is the first created chemical element and it is the most abundant in the universe, so far as we know.

so far as we know

boy, isn't that a loaded phrase??

:shk:

Another article on the possible formation of hydrogen based life forms. I'll keep adding as I find just to have one source

Hydrogen being the most common element in the universe and the discovery of hydrogen based life forms probably increases the chance of life existing elsewhere in the universe. Even far below the surface of planets that might look desolate at first glance.

When the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets (Drake equation) increases, the probability of intelligent on other planets also increase.

Another implication is that even more types of life might exist, making it more difficult to look for life elsewhere. If a carbon monoxide detector won’t do the job, what to look for then?

reply to post by lordtyp0


The thread title is a little misleading, the newly discovered lifeforms are still carbon based but don't utilise oxygen. They arent hydrogen based in the same way we aren't oxygen based.

There are lots of lifeforms that dont need oxygen but the importance of this discovery is they are more complex lifeforms than the usual anaerobes.

reply to post by LightFantastic


Eh, I was tired when I wrote that up, I was thinking the designation meant breathers at the time.. Yes I know that it does not mean that. At the time though it made perfect sense to my sleep deprived brain