Jul 27, 2025 08:55 PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedormin...e-know-it/
EXCERPTS: In her new book, “Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth,” Karen G. Lloyd, a microbial biogeochemist at the University of Southern California, deftly leads us through her years-long global quest to understand the inner workings of these subsurface microbes.
[...] As Lloyd repeatedly makes clear, they seem to thrive on chemicals produced by rocks under the influence of great heat and pressure. Intraterrestrials use these chemicals to gain energy and build their bodies, just like plants do using sunlight at the surface, she notes.
How is the research community advancing this relatively new field of intraterrestrial research? Arguably, the most ambitious remains Japan’s ship Chikyu which was designed to drill through Earth’s crust and into our mantle.
If life is found in Earth’s mantle, that would likely change astrobiology in untold ways. Because who could argue that any given planet, no matter how seemingly inhospitable, couldn't harbor some sort of life? That goes for planets within our own solar system, including subterranean Mars, maybe even subterranean Venus, which to date, has been extraordinarily difficult to explore.
One of the oddest species is a radiation-loving bacterium that holds the record for the deepest life yet found on Earth. It was found thriving 2.8 km deep below the surface in a South African gold mine. Dubbed Desulforudis audaxviator, it apparently eats the reaction products of pure radiation and water.
Some intraterrestrials almost appear to be in stasis, but yet are not.
The fact that living cells likely exist in a nongrowth state for very long timescales raises two important questions, Lloyd writes. Are these microbes evolutionarily adapted to hang out in this undead, dormant state for thousands or millions of years, Lloyd wonders, or do they just persist because cells don’t need any special adaptations to stay alive for so long? (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: In her new book, “Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth,” Karen G. Lloyd, a microbial biogeochemist at the University of Southern California, deftly leads us through her years-long global quest to understand the inner workings of these subsurface microbes.
[...] As Lloyd repeatedly makes clear, they seem to thrive on chemicals produced by rocks under the influence of great heat and pressure. Intraterrestrials use these chemicals to gain energy and build their bodies, just like plants do using sunlight at the surface, she notes.
How is the research community advancing this relatively new field of intraterrestrial research? Arguably, the most ambitious remains Japan’s ship Chikyu which was designed to drill through Earth’s crust and into our mantle.
If life is found in Earth’s mantle, that would likely change astrobiology in untold ways. Because who could argue that any given planet, no matter how seemingly inhospitable, couldn't harbor some sort of life? That goes for planets within our own solar system, including subterranean Mars, maybe even subterranean Venus, which to date, has been extraordinarily difficult to explore.
One of the oddest species is a radiation-loving bacterium that holds the record for the deepest life yet found on Earth. It was found thriving 2.8 km deep below the surface in a South African gold mine. Dubbed Desulforudis audaxviator, it apparently eats the reaction products of pure radiation and water.
Some intraterrestrials almost appear to be in stasis, but yet are not.
The fact that living cells likely exist in a nongrowth state for very long timescales raises two important questions, Lloyd writes. Are these microbes evolutionarily adapted to hang out in this undead, dormant state for thousands or millions of years, Lloyd wonders, or do they just persist because cells don’t need any special adaptations to stay alive for so long? (MORE - missing details)
