The bacteria could help extract minerals from rocks on Mars and the Moon, the study says

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Mining in space may be possible due to bacteria

Experiments conducted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) suggest that bacteria can extract useful materials from rocks on Mars and the Moon.

According to the ISS team, the bacteria could someday be used to break down rocks in the ground for growing crops or to supply minerals to life support systems that produce air and water.

For the study, scientists from the University of Edinburgh developed matchbox-sized mining devices called biomining reactors over a 10-year period. These were sent to the ISS last year.

The devices contained small pieces of basalt – a common rock on the Moon and Mars – immersed in a bacterial solution. After three weeks, the researchers found that the bacteria could improve the removal of rare earth elements from basalt in lunar and Martian landscapes by up to about 400%.

Microbes are also routinely used on Earth in biomination to extract useful elements such as copper and gold from rocks. The new experiments have also provided new data on how gravity affects the growth of microbe communities here on Earth, the researchers say. More on New York Times.

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The oldest evidence of twin birth found in a 31,000-year-old tomb

Scientists have found that a 31,000-year-old newborn grave is the first genetically verified proof and the first twin birth proof.

Upper Paleolithic burials, including a double burial of two babies and the burial of a three-month-old baby, were excavated in 2005 in Austria.

Archaeologists have now deciphered the relationship between the three children and determined their sex and age at death more precisely.

The different ages of death of children from the double tomb, who could be identified as identical twins, confirm that the reopening of a tomb for burial was a cultural-historical phenomenon at the time.

Molecular genetic analysis was able to show that the double burial involved male and identical twins.

The researchers said that the fact that sufficiently old, high-quality DNA can be extracted from the fragile skeletal remains for a genome analysis can be compared to a lottery ticket.

The skeletal remains of the third child recovered from the second tomb revealed that the child was possibly a cousin of the twins. More on Livescience.

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Atmospheric rivers that create holes in Antarctica

Scientists have found that warm, humid rivers of air in Antarctica are creating huge holes in sea ice in a phenomenon that can affect the conditions of oceans across the vast continent and climate change.

These long, intense plumes of warm air – known as atmospheric rivers – cause sea ice holes to develop rarely during winter. A large hole in this area was first observed in 1973, and a hole developed again in late winter and early spring 2017.

Scientists have now found that repeated rivers with a strong atmosphere during late August through mid-September 2017 played a crucial role in the formation of the sea ice hole. These rivers carried warm, humid air from the coast of South America to the polar environment, warming the surface of the sea ice and making it vulnerable to melting.

With future climate change, atmospheric rivers are expected to become more frequent, longer and wider. They are also expected to become more effective in moving high levels of water vapor to the Southern Ocean. More on New Scientist.

Ancient lake bed discovered under the thick Greenland ice sheet

Researchers have discovered the remains of a huge ancient lake bed beneath Greenland’s thick ice sheet. This is the first ever discovery of such a subglacial feature anywhere in the world.

The lake which covers approximately 2,700 square miles probably formed at a time when the area was ice-free millions of years ago. Contains unique fossil and chemical traces of past climates and life.

These data are critical to understanding what could happen to the Greenland ice sheet in the coming years as the climate warms.

Researchers mapped the lake floor by analyzing data from airborne geophysical instruments that can read ice-penetrating signals and provide images of underlying geological structures. Most of the data came from planes flying low over the ice sheet as part of NASA’s IceBridge operation. More on BGR.

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