科學(xué)家在加拿大一處礦井地下2.4公里處，發(fā)現(xiàn)了微生物

 

 

Amongst all of Earth's abundant life, microorganisms have proven time and time again that they can live just about anywhere. Now, we have more evidence to add to the pile: living microbes have been found some 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles) below the surface in a Canadian mine, a long way away from sunlight and clean air.

 

在地球上所有豐富的生命中，微生物一次又一次地證明，它們可以在任何地方生存?，F(xiàn)在，我們有更多的證據(jù)可以證明這一點：在加拿大一個遠(yuǎn)離陽光和干凈空氣的礦井里，在地表以下2.4公里(1.5英里)處發(fā)現(xiàn)了活的微生物。

 

Researchers think that it's the presence of sulphates in the ancient underground water that's keeping these microscopic life forms alive; they're 'breathing' the sulphates to survive, rather than relying on oxygen.

 

研究人員認(rèn)為，正是古代地下水中硫酸鹽的存在，使這些微生物得以存活——它們通過“呼吸”硫酸鹽來生存，而不是依賴氧氣。

 

The cave water itself is actually one of the oldest known pools of water on Earth, cut off from the surface of the planet for millions of years.

 

洞穴水本身實際上是地球上已知最古老的水池之一，它與地球表面隔絕了數(shù)百萬年。

 

Finding life down at these depths would have been considered impossible until quite recently, due to the lack of the chemical ingredients that normally support living things.

 

直到最近，由于缺乏通常支持生物生存的化學(xué)成分，在這樣的深度下尋找生命還被認(rèn)為是不可能的。

 

(Stable Isotope Laboratory, University of Toronto)

 

"Even in the modern scientific era, the planet's biosphere was thought of as a thin veneer on or near the surface of the planet, with life primarily dependent on photosynthesis to thrive," write the researchers in their paper.

 

研究人員在他們的論文中寫道：“即使在現(xiàn)代科學(xué)時代，地球的生物圈也被認(rèn)為是地球表面或其附近的一層薄薄的薄片，生命主要依靠光合作用來生長。”

 

That hypothesis has been changing, though. Scientists took samples taken from deep inside the mine, and after testing that the prehistoric water had not been contaminated with water from mining operations closer to the surface, looked for signs of metabolic activity.

 

不過，這種假設(shè)一直在改變?？茖W(xué)家們從礦井深處采集了樣本，并在測試了史前水沒有被地表附近采礦作業(yè)的水污染后，開始尋找代謝活動的跡象。

 

Having added food sources to incubated cells taken from the samples, the team found that the food was indeed being processed.

 

在給從樣品中提取的培養(yǎng)細(xì)胞添加了食物來源之后，研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，食物確實在被加工。

 

The results don't tell us exactly what the microbes are, but it does show that microbes – specifically sulphate reducers – are active, forging a living from the chemical reactions between water and rock deep below the surface.

 

研究結(jié)果并不能確切地告訴我們微生物是什么，但它確實表明了微生物——特別是硫酸鹽還原劑——是活躍的，通過水和巖石在地表深處的化學(xué)反應(yīng)來維持生命。

 

"It's great to be able to see that they're there," geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar, from the University of Toronto in Canada, told Catherine Offord at The Scientist.

 

加拿大多倫多大學(xué)的地質(zhì)學(xué)家芭芭拉·舍伍德·洛拉爾，告訴科學(xué)家凱瑟琳·奧福德：“能看到它們在那里，真是太好了。”

 

"We were confident that they likely were, but it's a very long journey from that to a series of hard lines of evidence that actually supports it."

 

“我們相信他們很有可能是這樣，但從這一點到一系列支持這一觀點的確鑿證據(jù)，還有很長的路要走。”

It backs up previous work from the same researchers that had found evidence of microbes living in this water – rich in hydrogen and sulphates – in the past. Now we know that the cycle of life is continuing.

 

這一發(fā)現(xiàn)支持了先前研究人員的工作，這些研究人員在過去發(fā)現(xiàn)了生活在這種富含氫和硫酸鹽的水中的微生物的證據(jù)?，F(xiàn)在我們知道生命的循環(huán)還在繼續(xù)。

 

While bacteria living deep inside mines might not have much of an impact on your day-to-day life, it expands our understanding of what life is, and how it can survive even in the harshest of environments.

 

雖然生活在礦井深處的細(xì)菌可能對你的日常生活沒有多大影響，但它擴(kuò)大了我們對生命是什么、以及它如何在最惡劣的環(huán)境中生存的理解。

 

That in turn informs everything from our search for life outside the Solar System, to investigating subterranean biospheres here on Earth. What's happening in Kidd Creek Mine in Canada might be happening elsewhere too.

 

這反過來又啟發(fā)了我們對太陽系外生命的探索，以及對地球地下生物圈的研究。發(fā)生在加拿大基德克里克礦的事情，也可能發(fā)生在其他地方。

 

And there could well be more to come, in terms of identifying both active and inactive microbes in this underground environment, something which is beyond the scope of this latest study.

 

在識別地下環(huán)境中活躍和不活躍的微生物方面，還有更多的事情要做，這超出了這項最新研究的范圍。

 

"This paper is groundbreaking, so to speak," microbial ecologist John Spear from the Colorado School of Mines, who wasn't involved in the work, told The Scientist.

 

“可以說，這篇論文是開創(chuàng)性的。”科羅拉多礦業(yè)學(xué)院的微生物生態(tài)學(xué)家約翰·斯皮爾告訴這位科學(xué)家，他沒有參與這項研究。

 

"They were able to get an idea of the amount of native microbial biomass... and they were able to confirm that the waters that the microbes are living in are host waters – they're not contaminated or impacted by water coming from the surface."

 

“他們能夠了解本地微生物的生物量……能夠確認(rèn)微生物所生活的水域是宿主水域——沒有受到來自地表水的污染或影響。”

 

The research has been published in the Geomicrobiology Journal.

 

這項研究已發(fā)表在《地球微生物學(xué)雜志》上。