Storm Clouds Crawling With Bacteria

Livescience.com ^ | 1/23/2013 | Tia Ghose

[RoosterRedux]

The storm clouds in Earth's atmosphere are filled with microbial life, according to a new study.

The research, published today (Jan. 23) in the journal PLoS One, revealed that hailstones drawn from storm clouds harbor several species of bacteria that tend to reside on plants, as well as thousands of organic compounds normally found in soil. Some of the bacterial species can seed the tiny ice crystals that lead to rain, suggesting they play a role in causing rain.

"Those storm clouds are quite violent phenomena," said study co-author Tina Santl Temkiv, an environmental chemist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "They are sucking huge amounts of air from under the clouds, and that's how the bacteria probably got into the cloud."

Living on a cloud

In the past, researchers have found bacterial life in clouds that drift over mountaintops. Bacteria have been found as far up as 24.8 miles (40 kilometers) and may even survive as spores into space, Temkiv said. [Holey Clouds: Gallery of Formations Cut By Airplanes]

[TangoLimaSierra]

Don’t worry about it; our lakes and streams are full of anti-biotics. :)

HA!

[Buckeye McFrog]

and for all these years I thought they were Operating Room Sterile /sarc

[Donnafrflorida]

Calcium hypocloride. 78%

[DannyTN]

"Screw the environmentalists, we should terraform every damn plant in this solar system that we can."

I'm with you.

I think the easiest would be Mars. First we need to increase it's mass so it's can retain more atmosphere. To do this I think we should crash some water laden asteroids into it.

[DuncanWaring]

Even without that there’s still the bird-droppings-on-the-roof issue.

[prairiebreeze]

LOL....yep.

[bgill]

What I’d like to know is, who thought storm clouds were sterile? And that it required a study.

Someone who was too lazy to get a real job but was still smart enough to get a $$$$ grant.

[painter]

I can remember back in the 1960s when I was a kid were told to not eat the snow. (I live in the Missouri)Why?,because of the above ground nuclear testing.

[RoosterRedux]

Up in Vermont, Connecticut, and New York, I was told to never eat the yellow snow.;-)

And when hiking in the mountains, never drink the water from a crystal clear stream. Moose or bear probably up stream.

[Hugin]

Pretty much everything has bacteria on or in it. Far as I know there aren’t a lot of folks dying from drinking rainwater.

[Hugin]

I know you never want to eat/drink snow with a pinkish tinge because it has a harmful bacteria growing in it. But that’s usually just on the surface, it you scoop it off the white snow underneath is good.