{ Discoveries }

Microbes Found Under The Taylor Glacier in Antarctica

As a wise Ian Malcolm once said, “… life finds a way.” This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. In an article by John Tierney of the New York Times, I learned that Jill Mikucki, a researcher, found that microbes have been living under the Taylor Glacier for over two million years. What’s most interesting about the story is that they’ve been living in a saltwater lake under this glacier without sunlight and without any nutrients commonly found in regular soil.

In addition, I found a statement made by a commenter named Martin Richard, rather grounding and adding to the fact that life is precious. But, it’s true, so I guess we have to deal with it. His comment can be read below.

This evidence for the ubiquity and tenacity of microbial life also reinforces the point, that the great mass of life is on the micro-scale. We mistake the forms most visible to us as life itself, when in fact all we readily see are superficial and temporary manifestations of the deeper flow of life.

We are doodles on the bacterial sketchpad, easily erased, easily replaced.

Creepy? Yes. True? You bet.