[HN Gopher] Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Ins...
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Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other
Worlds
 
Author : theafh
Score  : 78 points
Date   : 2021-05-24 15:52 UTC (7 hours ago)
 
web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
 
| ISL wrote:
| I was lucky as an undergrad to attend a small lecture by Tommy
| Gold [1] near the end of his life, where he advocated the ideas
| described in his book Deep Hot Biosphere. He was often ahead of
| his time and unafraid to take controversial positions to get
| there (including the now-accepted, but once derided, phenomenon
| that we know today as the pulsar).
| 
| You might be right again, Tommy.
| 
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold
 
  | hn8788 wrote:
  | Sort of off topic, but I wonder if that idea was part of the
  | inspiration for the origin story of Godzilla, or if it's just a
  | coincidence.
 
| zzzbra wrote:
| to think that some people called the new godzilla movies dumb...
 
  | gus_massa wrote:
  | The idea is that the radioactivity produces Hydrogen and
  | Sulfate, and some bacteria (or achaea?) can "burn" the Hydrogen
  | extracting an Oxygen from the Sulfate. So no Godzilla down
  | there.
 
    | eloff wrote:
    | Unless there are little animals eating the bacteria, and
    | bigger animals eating them, etc.
    | 
    | I mean it's preposterous, but not impossible if for some
    | reason the rock was porous enough. Maybe inside a small moon
    | or asteroid.
 
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(page generated 2021-05-24 23:00 UTC)