Could Some Microbes Live on Air Alone?

Researchers have found Antarctic microbes that appear to get all the nutrients they need from thin air. Could this change our search for extraterrestrial life?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, pay their
brain stuff luring Vogelbon. Here, life's resilience keeps astounding us.
Unimaginable as it may seem, there's a thriving population of
microorganisms in the cold, dry, nutrient poor soils of Antarctica.
A study may have just revealed the secret to their survival,

(00:22):
and that revelation could transform our quest to find life
on other planets. Antarctica is a continent which famously goes
dark for months on end during the winter season, a
period in which it sees no sunlight. This presents a
big challenge to organisms who need to photosynthesize, that is,
convert solar light into food. Intense dryness is another hurdle.
Certain parts of the continent receive no precipitation whatsoever, and

(00:45):
even though Antarctica is covered in ice, drinkable water is scarce.
And then we have the issue of carbon. All known
life is based on this element, and yet very little
of it can be found in Antarctic dirt. But life
uh finds a way. For years now, biologists have known
about the existence of diverse bacteria communities in Antarctic as soils.
How could anything survive under such extreme conditions. To gain

(01:08):
some insight, a team of Australian and New Zealander scientists
took a hard look at micro filled dirt samples from
two ice free sites in eastern Antarctica. Both areas are
deserts where no plants can grow. The McMurdo Dry Valley's
region has even been compared to the surface of Mars.
The place has received no rainfall in almost two million years,
its humidity levels are staggeringly low, and ice, snow, and

(01:31):
liquid water are all practically non existent there. On December six,
the team published their findings in the journal Nature. They
reported seeing DNA traces from twenty three microbial organisms inside
those soil samples. By reconstructing the microbes genomes, the scientists
learned that many of these life forms had genes that
made them exceptionally good at processing carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

(01:54):
The researchers theorized that the organisms are able to meet
their energy requirements by pulling both of these gases, along
with carbon dioxide, straight out of the atmosphere. In other words,
because of Antarctica's shortage of sunlight and suitable water, as
well as nutrient poor soil, these microbes could be surviving
off of air alone. Should this be true, planets and
moons that were once written off as completely uninhabitable might

(02:17):
be able to sustain life after all. Maybe alien organisms
don't need drinking water or abundant sunlight on their homeworlds. Instead,
it could be that the only thing they require is
the right combination of atmospheric gases. But the study scientists
say more research is needed to see if this phenomenon
exists in other parts of the world as well as
outside of it. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini

(02:44):
and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and
lots of other lively topics, visit our home planet, how
Stuff Works dot com.