Heroes Not Zombies

It seems there is no end to astonishing discoveries on this planet Earth. Now we’ve discovered Life half a mile under ice where the sunlight never, ever reaches. In a subglacial lake in Antarctica scientists have over 4000 species of single celled organisms. But how can they exist when there is no sunlight, and so no photosynthesis?

As photosynthesis is impossible without sunlight, the Lake Whillans bacteria must get their energy from a different source. This could be existing organic material, or, like the ‘chemotrophs’ found in gold mines and near deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the bacteria might run on chemical reactions involving minerals in the Antarctic bedrock and carbon dioxide dissolved in lake water.

Bacteria have sure learned how to live in environments human beings couldn’t survive in!