They Didn't Discover Life

[kamalktk]

Scientists have discovered the first soil on Earth that did not have life in it, on a mountain in Antartica.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/soil-without-life-discovered-first-time-earth


"Researchers found no signs of life in soil from the mountains, which they analyzed by testing for the presence of DNA in the samples they collected. The sites are the first places on Earth’s surface that host no microbial life, the team reported last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences."

 

[escargot]

That's strange. One thinks of soil as organic and teeming with microscopic life.

 

[GNC]

I wonder if Mars is like that?

 

[Cochise]

Scientists have discovered the first soil on Earth that did not have life in it, on a mountain in Antartica.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/soil-without-life-discovered-first-time-earth


"Researchers found no signs of life in soil from the mountains, which they analyzed by testing for the presence of DNA in the samples they collected. The sites are the first places on Earth’s surface that host no microbial life, the team reported last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences."

I do find that very curious. Do they mean soil or sand? Almost by definition soil is broken down by or mixed with organic life. whereas sand is broken down by geological action.

Mud can be made of either, but if it is sand it is in suspension in the liquid rather than a solution.

More and more I think my tagline - I've mentioned it earlier today, apologies - is apposite. Scientists (with honourable exceptions) long ago stopped being able to see the woods for the trees, now they cant see even the trees for the subatomic particles.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I wonder if Mars is like that?

The surface, absolutely. Further down... who knows?

 

[Kondoru]

Antarctica was warmer in prehistoric times so perhaps there are soils remaining today that was formed back then?

(No soil expert, me)

Anyhow, its a pretty impressive achievement; even the Dry Valleys have life.

 

[brownmane]

The article has a statement of clarification added, stating that there may have been a small sample of microbes present that the testing didn’t catch.

 

[Sid]

The article has a statement of clarification added, stating that there may have been a small sample of microbes present that the testing didn’t catch.

As it seems to suggest that the higher soil samples are the ones which are (almost) absent of microbial life, I wonder if these soils have been deposited amounts of wind-blown soil being dropped further up from these two mountains from lower altitudes over many thousands of years?