What Are the Benefits of Deep Earth Microbes for Humanity?

TL;DR

Deep earth microbes, weighing about 40 billion tons, could play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by converting carbon dioxide into solid minerals. These slow-growing organisms are not merely dormant; they may be vital for understanding life's origins and enhancing our industrial and medical applications. Their unique metabolic processes offer potential breakthroughs in carbon storage and environmental sustainability.

Transcript

It may seem like we're all standing on solid earth right now, but we're not. The rocks and the dirt underneath us are crisscrossed by tiny little fractures and empty spaces. And these empty spaces are filled with astronomical quantities of microbes, such as these ones. The deepest that we found microbes so far into the earth is five kilometers down... Read More

Key Insights

• 🌎 Microbes are found not only on the surface of the earth but also deep within the earth's crust, making it one of the largest biomes on the planet.
• 🧪 There is still much to be discovered about these deep subsurface microbes and their potential significance for human life, including potential applications in industrial and medical fields.
• 🌋 Volcanoes, which are portals into the deep earth, play a role in the exchange of materials between the surface and subsurface world, including carbon dioxide.
• 💡 Deep subsurface microbes have the ability to convert carbon dioxide into carbonate minerals, which could potentially help mitigate climate change by locking up carbon underground.
• 🔬 Scientific discoveries, like the study of deep subsurface microbes, can be slow and require extensive data analysis and collaboration with colleagues. ⏳ These deep subsurface microbes are slow-growing and have likely not undergone cell division for thousands of years, which presents challenges in understanding their life cycles and biological processes.
• 🌱 Microbes in the deep subsurface ecosystem, called chemolithoautotrophs, derive their energy from rocks and contribute to the geological processes happening underground.
• 🔬 The study of deep subsurface microbes has implications for a wide range of fields, including understanding the coevolution of life and earth, predicting earthquakes, finding new life forms, and even understanding the origin of life itself.

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the empty spaces underneath the earth's surface filled with?

The empty spaces underneath the earth's surface are filled with astronomical quantities of microbes.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Microbes are found deep in the earth's crust and are abundant in our bodies and on the earth's surface, collectively weighing billions of tons.

• Deep subsurface microbes are slow but may have important evolutionary advantages and could be beneficial for humanity.

• Deep subsurface microbes could play a role in carbon storage and climate change mitigation, and studying them could lead to significant scientific breakthroughs.