To Find Life on Mars, Make Microbes Wiggle

To find a life of Marth, make microbes wiggle

By Gayoung Lee Edited Lee bills

The latest advancement of extraterrestrial life can come from swimming microbes “Wiggles” -c among a single-cell microscopic organisms that are numerous on all the nook on earth and cranny.

Microbes are found in the whole biosphere of our planet, and many of which flourish under very hard conditions and conditions that seem to be more complex. And the resistance is remarkable why as astrobiologist is so desire to study them. For example, if the microbes grow in a lake buried under the southern ice cap, maybe similar organisms can exist in similar extraterrestrial environments, such as The mysterious ocean covered in Jupiter’s lunar Europe or Underground regions of registered marass. But the trick is not to show that life alone potential be in those places, but endorse That does it, it requires his presence to detect first. Most life detection experiments have been looking for chemical trrackers: the other world’s microbes can be created as a by-product of their metabolism in their environments. However, a new approach based on the self-guided or slower movement of microbes can be reached.

Historically, testing the motility of microbes is costly and cost a lot of time, illusion of wrong access Missions of robotic spaces. This can encourage a group of German astrobologues to invent more effective and more efficient ways to verify moticism in a more effective way to explain in a study published on 6 February. Limits in astronomy and space sciences.

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In their study, researchers had three types of microbesBacillus subtilis, Pseudoalomonas haloplanktis and Halofax Volcanii– They are known Extremophilesor extreme temperatures, organisms that may last pressure or chemical conditions. Their experiment was simple: they would require microbes to swim in a nutrient source in repetitive way? To this end, two chambers were placed in a microscopic slide of a microscopic slide. The other side was rich with L-Serine solution, the synthesis of proteins and a critical amino acid for the reproduction of cells. When they tested each type of microbial, the researchers tested all three species of three species: the microbes swim from the initial attic to complete the “Blobs” chamber with L-Serine. This trend of the body is called “chemoTaxia” from the presence of certain chemicals.

In the case of organisms used in this experiment, “molecules may be useful for them (and move), especially for metabolism,” explained the main authors of the study Max Riekeles, Ph. D. student at the Technical University of Berlin. “We wanted to be simpler with our specific configuration, visual and computational aspects (learning chemo).”

Methods of making and control microbial motivation are “difficult to establish chemical gradients that are difficult, stable and predictable,” Christian Lindensmith said in the NASA Jet Propulsion lab. Also, “it is difficult to see the motority because microscopes have a small area of ​​view” and the microbes can be moved Other reasons, outdoor reasonssuch a thermal mix and deriva inertial. “It is very difficult that you are running this microscopic zoo,” he added.

The gel membrane that separated the two chambers of the new experiment was key to minimizing such difficulties, reducing many microbial movements. This semipermeable gel was basically passed by the organism to the other side, while L-Serine limited to the other side, while maintaining motivation to move microbial motivation. Configuration “has been a good choice,” says Jay Nadeak Portland State University, because the enginerobial enginerobial engine has been much easier. when they entered.

Such technical advances could be beneficial for the search for future life for space missions, say Nadeau and Lindensmith, both of the former riekeles, were unable to do any examination with the new study. “To do something like this in another world, especially it will be very cold, it’s like Europe-this: what happens if these organisms (foreigners) really swim, slowly?” Nadeau explained. “Well, in that case, you may need to leave for a week or more and then return.”

Using the new method, scientists could check any microbes of microbes in the nutrient chamber, constantly monitoring that microbes are remarkable. “That part is easy,” Lindensmith said. “The hard part is what it should put on the other side.” Although the life of the Earth can love L-Serine and although it may have similar basic foods, there is no guarantee that such substances would be attractive foreign organisms with another biochemistry.

Assuming the nutrient menu of life is the same between the cosmos, however, other obstacles could be maintained before this method has been maintained in some measurement device. For Riekeles, the next challenge is not to reinforce this technique with new innovations, but also “different types of engineering and testing microbes” and amino acids.

“It is one of the goals (Astrobiology) (other worlds) and seeks microorganisms, but in the meantime, we will give us mass visions so much on the ground,” Nadeau said. This new method for microbial classification is an easy but crucial job to make future efforts.

“You don’t know what it will be there (in space),” Lindensmith said, so diversify your tools and techniques on our planet here on our planet. “We need to be able to do all this kind of ground so that it can be done on other planets.”