From: Larry Klaes (lklaes@bbn.com)
Date: Fri Nov 19 1999 - 12:10:00 MST
>From NASA Watch and The Astrobiology Web:
19 November 1999: Bacteria: The Ideal Astronauts?
In August 1996 David McKay and Everett Gibson
from NASA JSC stunned the world by publishing a
paper in Science magazine that reported
evidence of fossilized microorganisms found
within the ALH84001 meteorite that came to
Earth from Mars. In the ensuing months and
years, interest in life on Mars - and elsewhere -
was rekindled.
The notion that rocks could be blasted off of one planet by an
asteroid impact and land upon another was not exactly new. But could
life be carried within a rock between planets and survive the trip
to take root on another world? The trip would not necessarily be all
that smooth.
Enter Deinococcus radiodurans. In an article in today's Science magazine,
researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) report that they
have determined the entire genetic sequence of this bacterium. D. radiodurans
can survive gamma radiation exposures of 1.5 million rads which literally
blast its DNA apart.
It then reassembles its DNA all by itself with no apparent ill effects.
This organism can also be completely dried out and then be revived and can
survive doses of ultraviolet radiation that would kill most other forms of
life. Sounds like the perfect organisms to send on a long trip inside a
rock between planets! Indeed, it is so robust that it is being considered
for use in cleaning up radioactive waste dumps.
Full Story online later today ....
Radiation resistance resources from the SpaceRef Directory
http://www.spaceref.com/Directory/Astrobiology_and_Life_Science/Radiation_Re
sistance/
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