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#1 Terraformation » Radiotrophic fungi » 2014-07-16 10:17:10

Koeng
Replies: 3

Hey

I was reading some scientific articles and happened to come across this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus

Might be useful for microbial energy production. Since this is all hypothetical, it'd be possible for bacteria to employ a radiation mediated gene activation system (such as phage lambda's). That way, cells would begin to produce the machinery for radiotrophic growth when conditions are suitable. Along with radiation, they could have energy systems that utilize autotrophic mechanisms like iron-oxidizing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acidithiob … rrooxidans), normal phototrophic growth, and maybe carbon monoxide uptake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithotroph). Or, alternatively, make a new organism that can inhabit each one.

Personally, I think that bacteria are a better option than lichens realistically, because lichens are very slow growing and you can't modify them quickly or efficiently. The melanin would help protect the bacteria from too much mutation from radiation. So then there are 3 different mechanisms for bacteria to use to get energy.

Anyway, just thought this would be generally interesting. Also on space flights you could use radiation to feed the bacteria.

-Koeng

#2 Re: Terraformation » Sending extremophiles to Mars » 2013-11-12 21:27:23

Nitrogen I almost forgot! I actually have a colleague working on a nitrogenase that works in oxygen environments (normally they don't, that why plants have to have nitrogen fixing bacteria underground in little nodules), and since he is working on putting it into cyanobacteria/algae already, it would most likely operate in a lichen

Perhaps having lichen AND extremophilic bacteria on the surface would be a good route. Natural selection at its finest. Perhaps the lichen could even uptake the extremophiles living in biofilm on the surface

Also I think that energy is not a restricting factor, since DNA repair is cheap (just if it gets too good no mutation happens, aka no evolution). Mutation HAS to happen or else we would most likely still be lil strands of RNA.

On the types of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria use the more advanced. Why? Because they can adapt quicker then plants. Lets say a cyanobacteria multiplies every hour. A plant mutliplies every 100 days. That means that the cyanobacteria have 2400 more chances on mutations developing the new system (because they multiply 2400x faster), and in addition to that the cyanobacteria can afford to have less DNA repair because they don't need to multiply billions of identical cells, so mutation happens quicker.

Metabolism is one of the biggest places though. The bacteria would have to uptake so many different types of stuff that this could be problematic. Of course there is always iron metabolism, which can create energy and compensate for sunlight.




The one thing that I was thinking about is that this would be a one time thing... if we screw it up then the bacteria are going to pump the air with oxygen and crap up all the iron in the soil. Which unfortunately means the process we want to accelerate will decelerate with the presence of oxygen

-Koeng

#3 Re: Terraformation » Sending extremophiles to Mars » 2013-11-05 23:15:15

Spaniard wrote:

My point is that most extremophiles are prokaryotes. Prokaryotes has little margin to create a complex macroorganism, no matter how much we redesign them.
I think that there is more possibilities to build complex organisms that could transform fast the environment, and, although much less endurable at cellular level, is more resilient as a whole organism, because creates a heave skin around it, that ultraresiliant prokaryotes that could only create simple colonies and simple protection because can not create an organism as a common thing.

Of course, if we reach the level of create new artificial life, we could develop extremophiles and multicellular designed from scratch.
Perhaps even in new solvents different from water could allow incredible low temperatures, capable of exists in places like Jupiter and Saturn moons.


I think my main point is going to be in logistics. By the time we have the technology to engineer an entire macro organism capable of replication, we could have already finished terraforming with bacteria. I mean, we can't(haven't) even engineered an entire bacteria from scratch. We don't even know what all the genes do in the smallest organism there is.

Here is an example: Antarctica. What do we find there? Only 2 flowering plants, yet hundreds of species of lichen, simply because small organisms have the ability to adapt and grow faster under these harsh circumstances because they are durable at the cellular level.

If effort is going to be placed to terraform, redesigning an entire organism would work better then extremophiles, but it is useless if it never gets completed due to funding or loss of public interest.

-Koeng

#4 Re: Terraformation » Sending extremophiles to Mars » 2013-11-04 17:55:06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermogenesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermogenin

Could be useful. And man would probably be needed to seed the population, but people will most likely land on mars before terraforming is implemented

#5 Re: Terraformation » Sending extremophiles to Mars » 2013-11-04 16:01:18

Right now I do research at UCI for a system for directed evolution, but I want to soon get into making minimal organisms. I remember on the DIYbiology forms when this article came up http://www.pnas.org/content/102/44/15971.full.pdf, you might be interested.

@Void Lichen are a good idea (no need to be intimidated, any idea is good)! The engineering of the fungi portion could be difficult, however, since these naturally grow very slowly and the fungi also would have rather large genomes, making manipulation hard. But if it was done the organism would most likely be much much tougher and could uptake resources more efficiently because it is (practically) multicellular

@Spaniard I think that the idea for the multicellular organism you propose could be just a bacterial extremophile community. Think of a colony of these organisms... and they produce biofilm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm) that has all the properties you speech of. The express black proteins for heat retention, and their biofilm is slimly, making there less evaporation. Perhaps at night there could be a genetic circuit to uptake water once the temperatures go down. Personally i think that would be a good idea because it would be easy to engineer. If you think about it, the community working on single celled organisms will almost always be ahead of mutlicellular organism researchers in genetic manipulation capability.

@ JoshNH4H Good news that there is water! But still a problem for the Methanogens is hydrogen... as I know there is not much on Mars, and the hydrogen they have still needs to be used for water. But I don't know, perhaps it doesn't matter and they can still do that. If it is efficient enough, the cells could probably use it. it sucks that most other greenhouse gases are toxic.... Is there any others you guys know that can be created with organic compounds? (there HAS to be some greenhouse gas that these bacteria make because their CO2 uptake is going to reverse the effects otherwise xD)

-Koeng

#6 Re: Terraformation » Sending extremophiles to Mars » 2013-11-03 21:28:08

Hey everyone! Its been a while since I've been here, i have been working on my current career with synthetic biology

With me, I fully support sending extremophiles to mars for the purpose of terraforming. (If I get done with my current projects, which should take a couple years, I plan on beginning creation of a extremophile to assist in terraforming mars)

I think that a major problem is cost. Bacteria multiply themselves, which is convenient if the public suddenly decides to stop funding a terraforming project. This makes cost very minimal. One of my current ideas for a bacterium goes as the follows;

Metabolism:
The bacteria would be photosynthetic and have the ability to metabolism iron (as is in the ground). For max effect, the bacteria would express both bacteriorhodopsin and average photosynthetic proteins, therefore absorbing as much sunlight as possible. The bacteria would be based off of a psychrophile, a cold loving bacteria, and would use an extreme amount of DNA repair proteins to be resistant to the UV radiation. For the iron metabolism to be most effective, there needs to be a biofilm. This biofilm surrounding the cells could also provide protection from UV and a place to condense water molecules for the organisms

Adaptation
There is 2 replication systems I would include in this bacterium. One would be for maintaining minimal function of the cell in its environment and for genes required for terraformation, the separate one for increased mutation, making it able to adapt to its environment extremely quickly. Whatever works, they use.

Terraformation
Well, I haven't done that much research on chemicals for terraformation, so is there any ones that anyone has thought of for terraformation? (Methane would work but it requires quite a bit of Hydrogen, one of the things that Mars lacks)

#9 Re: Terraformation » Using Phobos/Demos materials to alter the upper atmosphere of Mars. » 2012-12-28 15:56:55

Sorry I didn't read the entire article yet (I will) but I read somewhere bacteria are can nucleate water to ice! Perhaps using them in a form of terraforming would be a good idea....

-Koeng

#10 Re: Terraformation » Venus » 2012-12-28 15:45:41

Void wrote:

I bought a Discover magazine today, and read an article, "The Clouds are Alive".  The point in the article is that it seems that microorganisms high up, almost to conditions resembling Mars, and also in the clouds, serve as a catalist to freeze supercooled water.

So, in a different way it might after all be possible that a microorganism could alter Venus.  The rain and snow patterns.  I presume that it does rain and perhaps snow in the atmosphere of Venus in some circumstances.

I don't know what value the alteration would have however.

The organisms would have to put up with UV, as this article indicates some of these organisms do.  I also have reservations on the existance of a place in the atmospheric column where the organisms would not be burned up by Sulphuric Acid.  I do recall that Sulphuric Acid is an Oxidant.  If in very diluted conditions, it could actually be used by an organism in place of Oxygen perhaps.  Not sure.

Anyway something to think about.

Curiously, if there were already such an organism in the atmosphere of Venus, and it could cause supercooled water to freeze and precipitate, then this could be detected from orbit.  Precipiation would occur at a higher temperature than would be expected if there were no such particles/organsms.


Just wanting to say: the essential elements for life is Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen Oxygen Phosphorus Sulfur.
Venus lacks phosphorus, and doesn't have much hydrogen. Later I will post my revised "plan" for terraforming Venus with micro organisms.

-Koeng

#12 Re: Terraformation » Baxter mines and the nitrogen problem » 2012-12-27 00:13:57

Just a minute ago I checked out marsdrive and DysonB made this idea... note the below is totally him-


In Mayan times a Chinampas was created by building layers of soil and vegetation upon a shallow marsh. Trees are then planted at the corners to root the plot into the marsh.

The way the Chinampas could be created on Mars would be rather simple. First an area 300 feet long by 50 feet wide would be marked off in one of the polar regions or regions that have ice or snow. There would be a thirty foot walking path around the Chinampas between the dome and the ditch. The ditch would be five feet deep. In the bottom of the pit heat piping would be placed so that frozen ice would first be melted and then piped through the heating piping much the same way that a radiator creates heat in a home. Next a two foot thick blocks of ice would be placed on the heating pipes. Hot water is ran through the heating piping that then melts the ice blocks making a small pond. Martian soil is then placed into the pit causing it to become muddy. Because of the heating piping the mud will remain a little solid. As the heat backs the Martian soil the nutrients on the soil along with bacteria will be released where they will begin their jobs of doing what they do.

More and more layers of Martian soil is then added until the weight creates a compact chinampas. Once the chinampas is compact enough vegetables and other leafy greens would be planted that could then be eaten by Martian colonists.

The Dome or fence would be sixteen feet tall, would be made of Gorilla Glass, because Gorilla Glass is the be all for space colonization and terraforming needs where the glass would contain special cells that would enhance any sun light that passes through the panes so that the correct UV light is let in and that which is not needed is blocked out.

As the plants grow they will release oxygen which can then be collected for other uses. The carbon dioxide along with nitrogen would be piped in from the outside through special vents to feed the plants the nutrients that they need to produce oxygen.

Further uses of the Chinampas would be created to grow Cynobacteria that would then be able to create oxygen and nitrogen for the colonies use.

http://www.mpg.de/621120/pressRelease201003241

http://www.ozgate.com/in...tes/mars_atmosphere.htm

http://scienceforkids.ki...stry/atoms/nitrogen.htm

http://www.mpg.de/621120/pressRelease201003241

I know that what I am looking for is here in these articles somewhere.

Basically the process that I am looking for is to also pipe nitrogen and carbon dioxide into the Chinampas where bacteria would convert it into oxygen for human use, plant use and other bacteria use where the other bacteria would create by products would further be needed to create a nourishment base for the Chinampas.

#13 Re: Meta New Mars » New Mars Malware/Google Stamp of Disapproval » 2012-11-21 11:26:03

I was talking about that on MarsDrive. I ignored the warnings and went on t˙is site anyway, and no cookies, no difference.

-Koeng

#14 Re: Not So Free Chat » Vincent Weather, US » 2012-10-31 15:02:19

clark wrote:

Kerouac himself would get a nose bleed from this stream of consciousness.


I don't get it

-Koeng

#15 Re: Human missions » A Return to the Moon by the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary. » 2012-10-31 15:01:08

louis wrote:
RGClark wrote:

Argues the SLS as early as 2017 can be used to launch manned lunar lander missions:

SLS for Return to the Moon by the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2012/1 … -50th.html


  Bob Clark


I am expecting Space X to link up with Virgin Galactic in about 5 years.


Probably. Virgin Galactic has better publicity because of their airplanes. SpaceX will take over if they get their reusable rockets to work though.

-Koeng

#16 Re: Meta New Mars » Newmars Users » 2012-10-31 14:57:48

I second. Space organizations will get no where unless they bind together.
Personally, I go to MarsDrive to learn about funding mars, technical details, and everything else about REALLY getting there. Newmars is much better for the latest new on lets say, curiosity. (Thanks Vincent)

-Koeng

#17 Re: Not So Free Chat » are you playing a computer game? PS3? XBOX? » 2012-10-30 15:49:03

Minecraft... Creating a texturepack to make it look like mars...


-Koeng

#18 Re: Meta New Mars » Newmars Users » 2012-10-29 14:58:51

Would it really be that hard to back this site up on external hard drives? I mean, 70 dollars to protect 1 TB of writing seems like the price would be worth it.

Also I think the Apollo 20 mystery is in the Not-So-Free chat section... for a reason...

-Koeng

#19 Re: Not So Free Chat » Apollo 20 mystery » 2012-10-17 18:16:41

1 Coast to Coast would love this

2 Lets make the arkyd 100 from planetary resources look at it

-Koeng

#20 Re: Life support systems » Greenhouse - hydroponics vs soil » 2012-10-08 17:16:56

Wow robert, I never knew that that could be possible. Perhaps Mars One could use that paper if they start succeeding smile

-Koeng

#21 Re: Human missions » Space X are go! » 2012-10-08 17:13:10

I totally agree. I think that mars is a step away, but once people start touring the moon, all that will change.

Having that said, Most companies are still in LEO. (Virgin Galatic). I believe that only spaceX's technology could get us to the moon. Anyway, I will support spaces whatever they do smile

-Koeng

#22 Re: Unmanned probes » Official MSL / Curiosity Rover Thread | Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. PT » 2012-10-05 16:23:05

I think if the politics didn't get in the way, and space was build together instead of each faction hoping to get their own in space, we could do anything.

On that thought, ya I think that they could... Thats why I think a private company should send a satellite there just for communication like Mars One is planning. The more data they get across to the world, the more business. I think sometimes the US public thinks that they are the only world power in space right now.

I wonder if a small probe had enough energy it could... like a micro rover...

-Koeng

#23 Re: Not So Free Chat » Vincent Weather, US » 2012-10-04 16:55:12

You should create a ham radio station for weather tongue
On every tuesday and thursday at 5:00! smile

-Koeng

#24 Re: Unmanned probes » Official MSL / Curiosity Rover Thread | Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. PT » 2012-10-04 16:52:17

I agree with you louis. The public votes on the people who decide their funding.

The only problem I can see is the data transfer rate. But then again, I don't know.

-Koeng

#25 Re: Unmanned probes » Official MSL / Curiosity Rover Thread | Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. PT » 2012-09-29 17:02:01

Just wanted to put my opinion in...
1 I dearly want to say that the fossils in the Allan hills meteorite where actually smaller then bacteria, the size of nanobes actually- http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/to … index.html

2 I want to say I speculate as well if there was multicellular organisms on mars, I think that they may have come from earth if there are any. Such as tardigrades.

3 I want to say that PEOPLE SHOULD STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST LIFE POSSIBLY ON MARS. It is very possible, and scientists can create bacteria that can live in a variety of mars climates, like lava caves, or on the surface. It seems to me that when you talk about life on other planets they think about how common things would be able to live there, and they think it must be impossible without  even scratching the surface of the science. I believe strongly that there is life on mars and that it is similar to life on Earth.

-Koeng

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