This would be a fine development if it turns out that LENR is used by these organisms. Some of the parameters required for the use of LENR might be revealed to help us in our quest.
Do you think that the quantity of rocks consumed would give some indication of whether or not LENR were active? I would expect it to take a small quantity if nuclear energy were available for the organism. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Wed, Feb 6, 2013 11:04 am Subject: [Vo]:Chemolithotrophs and Ni-H If life on earth has ever evolved to use LENR for survival in extreme conditions, then evidence of that would likely be found in deep cold lakes in Antarctica. We talked about this earlier when it looked like the Russians were about to drill deep enough - but they had equipment failure. Now, for the first time, life-forms from deep under the Antarctic ice have been found at a site called Lake Whillans by a US team. Well, they are not sure yet what they have, but they found what looks like single celled organisms. Lots. This variety of extreme life was surviving under a half-mile of ice at temperatures below freezing. Water pressure keeps the water from turning solid. No light gets there. The life-forms apparently survive by "eating rocks" and are called "chemolithotrophs." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithotroph Over thirty years ago, Nickel was shown to be required as a trace element for survival of five strains of the more extreme chemolithotrophs Alcaligenes eutrophus, Xanthobacter autotrophicus, etc. (Archives of Microbiology February 1980, Volume 124, "Nickel requirement for chemolithotrophic growth in hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria" but there are articles about nickel requirements in these organisms going back much further) We will not know for months what strains of chemolithotrophs were found recently, or if they require nickel for survival. Of course, there is no harm in predicting that if nickel is found to be necessary - there is a real good case for some kind of LENR being used as an energy source. And even if iron alone is enough - perhaps LENR can take place with iron as well as nickel under those circumstances. Original story here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130205-antarctica-ice-life-m oons-science-environment-lakes/
