[HN Gopher] Tubeworms live beneath the planetary crust around de...
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       Tubeworms live beneath the planetary crust around deep-sea vents
        
       Author : marban
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2024-10-17 17:41 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.economist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.economist.com)
        
       | blakesterz wrote:
       | The study is here:
       | 
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52631-9
       | 
       | Lots of cool pictures if you like oceanography stuff.
        
         | mmooss wrote:
         | It includes the actual photos of the animals in the subseafloor
         | crust:
         | 
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52631-9/figures/2
         | 
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52631-9/figures/3
        
       | bityard wrote:
       | paywall'd
        
         | herdymerzbow wrote:
         | https://archive.is/I23NT
        
       | 1egg0myegg0 wrote:
       | Are we in the Dune timeline?
        
         | Tagbert wrote:
         | Yes, but we have to get through the Butlerian Jihad first.
        
           | pineaux wrote:
           | This will inevitably happen. Life is more robust than
           | electronic systems. The electronic systems will be destroyed
           | for their aggression.
        
       | ruleryak wrote:
       | https://archive.is/I23NT - mirrored
       | 
       | I won't pretend to be a biologist, so forgive me if this is
       | naive, but this does feel like it's at least within the realm of
       | possibility of working similarly on Europa, right? As in a non-
       | zero chance at least.
        
         | jl6 wrote:
         | It would be bold to declare it _im_ possible. We know so little
         | about abiogenesis. There might be a critical ingredient or
         | condition that Earth had which Europa lacks.
         | 
         | Or maybe not. Europa's ocean could be teeming with life.
        
           | thebruce87m wrote:
           | Discovery and detailed analysis of life on Europa in my
           | lifetime would be amazing. Even better if we can get
           | Attenborough there.
        
       | r00fus wrote:
       | There's a theory that life actually originated not directly
       | through photosynthesis based life, but originally from a very
       | constant source of energy - the earth's crust - Hyperthermophile
       | archaea - using non-oxygen based metabolism which migrated to the
       | surface where photosynthesis evolved and took over as the core
       | energy source.
       | 
       | All laid out in Paul Davies' book - fascinating read:
       | https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Fifth-Miracle/Pau...
        
         | polishdude20 wrote:
         | Similar to Nick Lane's work!
        
         | pineaux wrote:
         | Actually this is not a theory. Photosynthesis came millions of
         | years later than life. Plants are evolved from animals, not the
         | other way around. Basic animals are less evolved than basic
         | plants.
        
           | HelloMcFly wrote:
           | Plants and animals evolved from different lineages of
           | eukaryotic organisms. They share a common ancestor, but
           | plants did not evolve from animals. Plants evolved from green
           | algae, while animals evolved from colonial protists.
           | 
           | I also take exception with the concept of "more" or "less"
           | evolved. Do you mean "complexity"?
        
       | RachelF wrote:
       | The title of the article is incorrect, the worms live in the
       | crust, not "beneath the planetary crust" (in the magma).
       | 
       | The Economist magazine is not what it used to be, sadly.
        
         | fuzzfactor wrote:
         | Yeah, beneath the planetary crust is asking a lot.
         | 
         | Probably didn't want to settle for less but you take what you
         | can get . . .
        
         | davidw wrote:
         | I finally unsubscribed this summer.
        
       | metalman wrote:
       | my personal take on evolution,is based on two fact like pieces of
       | information, first is that life can perhaps be seen as extreamly
       | complex assemblies of matter and energy and second that the
       | universe is a vast field of energy gradients with a general mish
       | mash of all of the possible elements of matter lodged in a
       | variety of disks,spheres,blobs,and ribbons, leaving much of it
       | open for life to work in some form which is just a re phaseing of
       | what many have suggested is the feeling of the inevitability of
       | life,which I might add,is miracle enough
        
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