[HN Gopher] Researchers Find Microbe Capable of Producing Oxygen...
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Researchers Find Microbe Capable of Producing Oxygen from Martian
Soil
Author : ashishgupta2209
Score : 92 points
Date : 2025-12-03 06:34 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (scienceclock.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (scienceclock.com)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Source: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/one-extremophile-
| eats...
| canadiantim wrote:
| Lame title. Life wasn't found on mars they just cultured a
| microbe on soil from mars.
| stevenjgarner wrote:
| IMHO I feel the title is appropriate. They are not claiming to
| have found life on Mars, they are making the very pivotal claim
| that there are forms of life that can turn liabilities on Mars
| into assets.
| stavros wrote:
| Agreed, the clear was very clear for me too. I wonder what
| the microbe eats, and if we can supply that in enough volumes
| to make a dent to Mars' atmosphere.
| nephihaha wrote:
| True, it is deliberately misleading. However, some possible
| indicators of life have been found on Mars although these are
| contested. Two thar I can think of are methane emissions on
| the planets, and the soil tests by the Viking landers in the
| seventies, which returned ambiguous results.
| bilekas wrote:
| > True, it is deliberately misleading.
|
| It's not misleading, this article has nothing to do with
| finding life on Mars.
|
| > If humans ever build bases on Mars, they will need
| systems that can provide oxygen without constant resupply
| from Earth
|
| Have you READ the article ? Or just misinterpreted the
| title and then commented ?
| canadiantim wrote:
| It is misleading. The title suggests they found a microbe
| on mars: "Researchers Find Microbe... from Martian Soil".
| They did not.
| nephihaha wrote:
| I read it first. That second comment about bases is not
| mine.
| bilekas wrote:
| The title nor the article ever said that life _was_ found on
| Mars ?
| Gravityloss wrote:
| scientist discover microbe [...] from martian soil
|
| [...] microbe produces oxygen from martian soil
|
| I guess you read it the former way while most people read it
| the latter way. Neither is wrong or right. Slightly garden-
| pathy title.
| stevenjgarner wrote:
| This is so inspiring. It has become almost axiomatic that Martian
| regolith is toxic. [1] This microbe research represents a move in
| thinking from planetary protection (protecting us from Mars) to
| In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), using Mars to support us.
| The microbe turns two liabilities -- the high perchlorate ClO4
| mineral content and the atmospheric CO2 -- into the two
| necessities for a colony: building material and breathable air.
|
| [1] References:
|
| Davila, A. F., Willson, D., Coates, J. D., & McKay, C. P. (2013).
| Perchlorate on Mars: a chemical hazard and a resource for humans.
| International Journal of Astrobiology, 12(4), 321-325.
| https://doi.org/10.1017/s1473550413000189
|
| Oze, C., Beisel, J., Dabsys, E., Dall, J., North, G., Scott, A.,
| Lopez, A. M., Holmes, R., & Fendorf, S. (2021). Perchlorate and
| Agriculture on Mars. Soil Systems, 5(3), 37.
| https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems5030037
|
| Perchlorate on Mars - Overview and Implications. (2019). (NASA
| Technical Report).
|
| Perchlorate-Reducing Biofilms Open a New Avenue for Martian
| Agriculture. (n.d.). Current Trends in Biotechnology and
| Bioengineering Sciences, 1(1).
|
| Potential Health Impacts, Treatments, and Countermeasures of
| Martian Dust on Future Human Space Exploration. (n.d.). Life.
| HPsquared wrote:
| That reminds of how oxygen itself was highly toxic to the early
| anaerobic lifeforms on Earth.
| adrian_b wrote:
| As always, the title is grossly incorrect.
|
| The "microbe", is a blue-green alga, Chroococcidiopsis.
|
| It does not produce oxygen from Martian soil, but from water, if
| you give water and solar light to it.
|
| The newsworthy part is that this cyanobacterium can survive in
| the presence of the toxic Martian soil and it can also survive
| the freezing caused by the Martian temperatures.
|
| Therefore it could be used in some kind of greenhouses built on
| Mars, but a water source for supplying the greenhouse must be
| found.
|
| In general, on Mars producing enough water to cover all needs
| will be the greatest technical challenge. All other substances
| are abundant enough in comparison with the required quantities,
| except possibly the noble gases, like argon and helium (but in
| the non-oxidizing Martian atmosphere there will be much less need
| of inert gases for techniques like welding).
| bilekas wrote:
| I am quite ignorant on these specifics but wouldn't it be
| feasable to basically have them in a greenhouse environment,
| heated, in the North pole area, where I believe there was some
| form of IceWater found..
|
| If possible to even melt some of that, and let that cascade the
| effect ?
|
| https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_E...
| adrian_b wrote:
| That would work only for a base located at the North pole.
|
| If you want to explore other regions, or to set there a base,
| for instance for extracting some useful minerals, all the
| water will have to be transported from the poles, unless some
| quantities of ice will be discovered underground elsewhere
| (or of hydrated rocks, which can produce water when heated
| enough).
|
| Unless enough ice or hydrated rocks are discovered
| underground elsewhere, the amount of ice from the poles will
| sustain only a small human population.
| stevenjgarner wrote:
| How is it "grossly incorrect"? Using both taxonomic and size
| classification, is it not accurate to refer to a blue-green
| alga as a "microbe" or "microorganism." [1]
|
| A microbe (or microorganism) is generally defined as an
| organism that is microscopic--too small to be seen clearly by
| the naked eye. Blue-green algae fit this definition as they are
| single-celled or form microscopic colonies.
|
| The scientific name for blue-green algae is cyanobacteria,
| which are technically a type of bacteria, universally
| classified as microbes. [2] They are prokaryotes (lacking a
| nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles), and the two
| prokaryotic domains of life (Bacteria and Archaea) are composed
| entirely of microbes.
|
| [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9025173/
|
| [2] https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-
| environment/contaminants/bl...
| gus_massa wrote:
| > _How is it "grossly incorrect"?_
|
| Perhaps it's not glossly incorrect, but I classyfy it as
| "super ultra mega misleading".
|
| I'd like a title like "*Cyanobacteria survives in water
| contamined with martian soil"
| embedding-shape wrote:
| HN title at the moment is: Researchers Find Microbe Capable
| of Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil
|
| Article title at the moment is: Microbe That Could Turn
| Martian Dust into Oxygen
|
| Neither of those are particularly misleading, but requires
| you to read it carefully I suppose, otherwise it can
| misleading I suppose. I guess "Martian Dust" is the most
| misleading part of the quote, as the soil isn't actually
| Martian of origin, but actually "materials that are similar
| to Martian soil".
| adrian_b wrote:
| Both titles are very misleading, because neither "oxygen
| is produced from Martian soil" nor "Martian dust is
| turned into oxygen".
|
| As I have said, the oxygen comes only from water, which
| is missing on Mars, unlike the abundant Martian soil or
| Martian dust.
|
| So the "microbe" does not solve the problem of oxygen
| production, which is obtaining water. With water, making
| oxygen by electrolysis is trivial and a problem solved
| long ago.
|
| The cyanobacterium can make various useful organic
| substances, like proteins and vitamins. The fact that it
| also makes some oxygen is a minor additional advantage.
|
| Even if such cyanobacteria will be grown on Mars, most of
| the oxygen will be made by electrolysis anyway, because
| the efficiency from solar light to free oxygen is much
| better and the photovoltaic cells continue to function in
| a much wider range of temperatures.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > As I have said, the oxygen comes only from water, which
| is missing on Mars
|
| The title nor the article itself doesn't claim otherwise,
| unless I'm missing something?
|
| It's also not claiming that the microbe somehow solve the
| problem of obtaining water, or anything else.
|
| The only thing they claim is that this specific microbe,
| under the right circumstances, can produce oxygen while
| it grows in Martian-like soil. That's what the article
| claims, and the titles.
| dale_glass wrote:
| "Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil" to me implies that
| martian soil is the thing being turned into oxygen.
| adrian_b wrote:
| You have reproduced yourself the 2 titles, which contain:
|
| "Microbe Capable of Producing Oxygen from Martian Soil"
|
| "Microbe That Could Turn Martian Dust into Oxygen"
|
| The words "producing X from Y" and "turn Y into X" are
| extremely clear and they do not admit alternative
| interpretations. They both claim that X=oxygen comes from
| Y=soil|dust, contrary to what you say, that the titles do
| not contain such claims.
|
| I normally avoid to follow the fashion of accusing
| posters of being AI bots, but such a failure of
| comprehension could be explained only for an AI bot, or
| perhaps for someone who understands very little English,
| but the latter explanation does not match the correct
| English of the message.
|
| Perhaps you have used an English translation service that
| has confused you?
| adrian_b wrote:
| It is grossly incorrect because it does not "produce oxygen
| from Martian soil".
|
| This is extremely misleading, because on Mars Martian soil is
| abundant, while water is very scarce, so the title makes the
| reader believe that this cyanobacterium solves easily the
| production of oxygen.
|
| It does not help at all for oxygen production. If you have
| water, then it is easy to produce hydrogen by electrolysis,
| using solar energy. Getting water on Mars is the hard
| problem.
|
| There are chances that such cyanobacteria will be used on
| Mars, but for producing protein and other useful organic
| substances, with oxygen only as a byproduct.
|
| However I believe that at least for the more distant future
| there is a better alternative to the use of cyanobacteria:
| the capture of solar energy by artificial means, coupled with
| the synthesis of some simple organic substance, e.g. glycerol
| or glycine, which can then be used to feed a culture of fungi
| located underground, which can then produce proteins and all
| the other complex substances needed for human food. There
| already are genetically modified fungi that can produce whey
| protein or chicken egg white protein suitable for human
| consumption.
|
| This variant is better because photovoltaic cells have better
| efficiency for capturing solar energy and without
| environmental constraints, while genetically modified fungi
| can produce proteins of better quality than cyanobacteria and
| also any other complex organic substances that will be
| needed.
| KalMann wrote:
| I think the problem with your post is that it started a
| list of "incorrect statements" with a statement that wasn't
| incorrect.
| adrian_b wrote:
| Maybe I have not been clear enough, but there was no list
| of incorrect statements, as I was criticizing only a
| title.
|
| I did not say that was anything incorrect in calling a
| blue-green alga as "microbe". I have only mentioned what
| kind of "microbe" they had in mind in order to explain
| why the title is incorrect in claiming that the "microbe"
| makes oxygen from Martian soil, because blue-green algae,
| like plants and like any other living beings from Earth
| that can produce oxygen, produce the oxygen by splitting
| it from water and by using energy captured from solar
| light.
|
| There are no known living beings that can produce oxygen
| from anything else than water, so if such a "microbe" had
| been discovered, that would have been a much more
| important discovery than the possible use of
| cyanobacteria on Mars.
|
| Unlike the capabilities of catalyzing other chemical
| reactions, which frequently have appeared multiple times
| in the history of life, the ability to produce free
| oxygen has appeared only once and then it has been
| inherited from that source by all living beings that can
| do this, even if this heritage has been often transferred
| between very unrelated living beings. Therefore there
| exists a unique mechanism for this reaction, based on the
| oxidation of manganese with the help of solar light,
| which then oxidizes the oxygen from water into free
| dioxygen.
|
| The Martian soil is full of oxygen, but most of that
| oxygen is tightly bound on metallic cations, so it would
| require a very high amount of energy to be dissociated
| from them.
|
| Nevertheless, it should be possible to develop an
| electrolytic process for producing oxygen from the
| perchlorates that are abundant in Martian soil, saving
| the precious water for other purposes, i.e. for those
| that need the hydrogen from water, e.g. for making fuel
| and food.
| pfdietz wrote:
| Yeah, I was expecting something about a microorganism that
| could (say) decompose perchlorate to release oxygen, not some
| more mundane photosynthesizer.
| vinni2 wrote:
| "Researchers tested this by using soil that mimics Martian
| regolith. "
|
| Would this hold for real Martian regolith?
| fnands wrote:
| Once the Mars Sample Return brings some back we can test
| that...
| philipwhiuk wrote:
| We've had artifical oxygen generation for a while: [0] . It's
| probably useful to have a biological method.
|
| The survivability in the soil bit is actually the more important
| piece.
|
| [0]
| https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/perseve...
| kragen wrote:
| I thought Martian soil was full of perchlorate, which produces
| oxygen if you just get it wet and expose it to somewhere the gas
| can escape?
|
| I guess we'll never know, because this article is just blogspam
| linking another blogspam article that doesn't link the actual
| preprint, just says, "A recent paper from Daniella Billi of the
| University of Rome Tor Vergata , [sic] published in pre-print
| form in Acta Astronautica, reviews how one particular
| extremophile fills the role of both useful test subject and
| useful tool all at once."
| georgeecollins wrote:
| No one writes about technology to colonize Antarctica. Its
| warmer, has more ready water, less radiation and a breathable
| atmosphere. Plus its much easier to transport supplies.
| glitchc wrote:
| Going to Mars gives us biodome diversity. What's the gain in
| making Antarctica habitable? It's not like we're running out of
| land, and there are many underutilized parcels of land
| elsewhere on the planet that would be easier to terraform than
| Antarctica.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| We're terraforming Antarctica to make it (potentially)
| habitable anyway.
|
| Whether we like it or not.
| nephihaha wrote:
| I think they need to terraform the world's megacities first.
| :)
| scandox wrote:
| Yes and 19th century gentleman scientists were a lot more
| interested in studying savage tribes than their valets.
| Imagination is a great motivator and it is more stimulated by
| what is far away than what is near.
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