I'm not surprised at all that micro-organisms are living in the various layers of our upper atmospheres, as one earlier poster suggested, micro-organisms maybe taken up into the atmosphere from ocean and land evaporation, and of course, return in rain droplets, hail, and snow?

Their presence in each atmospheric layer will add densities of varying degrees, and I should imagine, they will circulate around the planet. Perhaps, they also act as a protective layer, sheilding certain radiations from the sun and space, and when the planet is hit by solar flares and CMEs, perhaps there are massive die-offs creating holes of dead organic matter that fall as food for oceanic life, but that evaporation restocks the holes?

If there's 'bugs' at 6 miles, then could they also exist in some form at much higher attitudes in microgravity?

Could the lower gravity up there allow those 'space worms' to evolve to the vast sizes of those giant glowing worms wriggling above the Earth in all those unexplained NASA films!?

Perhaps they wouldn't need skeletons to support their weight in low gravity, making 'worms' the evolutionary default up their.

I'm totally convinced that there is life (microorganisms) in the atmospheres os both Jupiter and Saturn. It would e in the layers that are at around 80 degrees. We are finding organic compounds everywhere. It only makes sense.
Look at the life forms found near the deep water vents on our planet, spitting out acids and super heated water. Life all around them. To think outer space is a "sterile" environment is short sighted IMHO.

could life exist without bacteria?

what would life without bacteria look life or b like?

Bacteria are what breaks down life from one form to another.

Without bacteria life would have to be a lot different than it is here on earth.

Bacteria is the root of Death.

one must wonder if the likes of the "Chicxulub asteroid impact" tossed these up and they've dwelled there ever since???

Small life forms though they may be, there are certainly alot of them, from what this report has uncovered. It seems to me that alongside any other questions this may raise, one stands proud. How does the presence of clouds of microorganisms, effect the electrical interaction between the Earth and its atmosphere.

As we know, the traditional understanding of lightning formation goes roughly thusly. When there is a significant build up of electrons in high cloud, and a shortage of the same in the lower cloud, the energy is released downward toward the lower section. This build up is caused by particles of dirt, ice, and other small particles, moving against each other causing friction, which has the effect of causing the electrostatic beginnings of lightning, or at least, thats how I was taught that it happens....

Now, it seems that there must be something missing from our understanding of the way that this electrical accounting system works. The troposphere is often associated with the birth of our weather, because the conditions that cause rain, wind, snow and so on, are those which can be found in that region of the sky. If this region is also carrying clouds of tiny organisms, then thier presence must affect things like lightning. Life forms, from you and I, to very small things, carry bioelectrical signals. In our bodies, the pathways are laid down, throughout the vast and complex circuits that make up even our smallest cluster of nerves, but though small, even a microbe contains electrical interactions, vital to its existence.

Add that to the equation which produces lightning... What do you think? Am I just tripping? Should I have had more than two hours sleep before work this morning?