Living the High Life: Scientists Discover Odd, Potentially Dangerous Lifeforms Thriving High in Earth’s Atmosphere

The Debrief ^ | September 13, 2024 | Micah Hanks

[Pearls Before Swine]

So much for that clean, fresh mountain air.

[Red Badger]

Ping!..............

[jimtorr]

I call humbug. Millions of people live at those altitudes in Colorado alone.

[MtnClimber]

That’s it! We need another lockdown. /s

[steve86]

There’s something screwed up in the article. The troposphere extends up from 5 to 9 miles and they are talking about the boundary layer.

[z3n]

"... the organisms included several potential human pathogens..."

The key weasel word here is "potential".

That's sensationalist BS!

Microbiology really doesn't work that way. If it's natural habitat is airborn 3000 meters in the sky, it's not going to make the jump to a parasitic relationship with a warm, ground-level, moderately anaerobic biological host environment.
Most microbes are so specialized they don't even jump from similar species hosts, let alone from distant and extreme environments. Most

[Red Badger]

Well, that sure explains Colorado’s voting patterns...............

[9YearLurker]

Oh, noes! C19 spike proteins floating in space!

[jimtorr]

Well, that sure explains Colorado’s voting patterns...............

LOL. I knew that remark would come quickly.

[sphinx]

When did 1-3,000 meters become high altitude? 1,000 meters is common enough on the Appalachian Trail. Plenty of the Rockies are above 3,000 meters. I guess we should mask up to go hiking.

[Getready]

Fred Hoyle and Wickramasinghe postulated that microbial life could be transplanted between planets by being included in dust particles, micrometeorites or other stone fragments. Modern folk call it lithopanspermia...usually caused by high impact events.
Now,,,if we find organisms in space or other planets we may not be sure they evolved there. From what I understand. Hoyle was convinced that life on earth was seeded from space as he saw the chances of life evolving here on Earth from raw elements impossible without intelligent intervention. He never tried to answer the question of where exactly did life actually evolve from. Some research group wants funding...

[clearcarbon]

"Living the High Life: Scientists Discover Odd, Potentially Dangerous Lifeforms Thriving High in Earth’s Atmosphere

They get a little more ultra-violet light exposure up there.

[ifinnegan]

There’s bacteria everywhere.

Threats From Above hardly sounds like a name for a scientific project.

[Getready]

Another myth about clean mountain air. If we had eyes that could magnify things 5000x, we would be paranoid because we would see the trillions of microorganisms inside, outside our bodies and on every nook and cranny of the earth.
Surprising we just aren’t gobbled up....

[DouglasKC]

While I’m sure this is true I wonder why the tone of the article is how dangerous this is. It seems like if they’ve been there for so long they’ve always been dangerous. Is this how they’re going to epxlain the next deadly virus that requires a lockdown?

[Red Badger]

Well, I never saw a 50’s Sci-Fi movie with a title like:

THE THING FROM 3000 METERS!.............

[Red Badger]

Saying that life on Earth came from another planet, simply kicks the can down the road.

Where did THAT life come from?

And if you say another planet, then where did THAT life come from?

It’s a non-answer, and a way for a ‘scientist’ to avoid answering the obvious.

There is absolutely no evidence of life outside the Earth’s sphere of influence. None, zero, zip, nada.

If there were, it would be everywhere...........................

[ifinnegan]

Bamp bamp BAMP

(Dramatic music)

[Hot Tabasco]

The govt. always screws everything up. Everything was fine until they banned CFC’s in order to save the ozone layer.