Award winning geo-biologist at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) USA and Wood Holes Oceanography Institutions Massachusetts used sophisticated drilling techniques to collect deep subsea floor samples to study microbial life, their interaction and potential implications for the wider life.
The samples were collected from remote areas 80 km north coast of mainland Japan, only accessible by helicopter. Using special techniques, pristine microbial samples were collected and analysed. The researchers found that there was not just one deep sea floor but a diverse community comparable to the surface communities though not as many.
Genetic analysis showed strong similarities. Resources were much limited in the deep subsea floor compelling the microbes to develop strategic survival mechanisms. They developed extremely slow rate of growth, with rate of multiplication extending up to over 100 years increasing there longevity.
The research, Dr Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, supported by her former supervisor at Caltech Dr Victoria Orphan, suggest there could be some lessons in how we think about longevity and whole host of other life factors.
Podcast – Deep Subsea Floor Microbial Life
Promoting wellbeing currently has a connotation of exercise or being active, eating well including the 5-a-day fruit portion and sleeping well. Do we need to consider suitable stress situations that forces our cells and the components to adapt to conditions and environment? What type of stress would those be in a modern world? These seem interesting questions to be answered by more radical research.
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