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

New research has revealed high-altitude air in Earth’s atmosphere is teeming with living organisms, a discovery that challenges our views on the dispersal of microbes and their relationship to human health.

The findings, made by an international collective of climate, health, and atmospheric specialists based in Japan and Spain, has revealed Earth’s atmosphere is populated with a surprisingly diverse array of living bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Discovered at altitudes as high as 1,000 to 3,000 meters, the organisms included several potential human pathogens, revealing their ability to travel over great distances and prompting new concerns about their impact on health and the spread of disease.

Threats from Above In a pioneering new research effort, researchers Xavier Rodó, Sofya Pozdniakova, Sílvia Borràs, and Roger Curcoll relied on data collected from high altitudes using a chartered aircraft.

According to the team’s study, “10 tropospheric flights over the planetary boundary layer in Japan (between 1,000 m and 3,000 m above sea-level) demonstrate the presence of viable bacteria and fungi harmful to humans.” Based on their findings, the researchers believe that the movement of such organisms over distances of as much as 2,000 km is possible.

The team’s research draws from past studies that already revealed how dust and microbes attached to it can travel vast distances. The new research reveals even more about the potentially wide dispersal of harmful organisms, investigating the extreme heights such organisms can reach, as well as gauging their ability to survive at such altitudes and across great distances.

Air samples the team obtained at high altitudes revealed more than 266 fungal and 305 bacterial genera. Among these, a dominance of Actinobacteria, Bacillota, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes was noted among bacteria, while Ascomycota was particularly prevalent among fungi detected.

The study also revealed the detection of several pathogenic bacteria at such altitudes, including Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, and Staphylococcus epidermidis, among others.

Another significant finding involved the mobility of these organisms, which are often helped along by strong winds. Given the presence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) in the organisms detected, the team’s findings suggest the possibility of pathogenic spread over significant distances, some of which may also display resistant genes. Fundamentally, the team’s findings point to a previously unrecognized mechanism for the dispersal of harmful microbes across large regions of the Earth.

DNA analysis conducted by the team, which they used to classify the microorganisms they found, revealed that many of the agents were capable of growing in culture, which further points to their potential impact on human health across wide geographical areas.

Significantly, the origins of most of the organisms the team identified during aerial collection flights over parts of Japan were traced to China, helping to confirm that winds had facilitated their spread across distances greater than 2,000 kilometers.

“Natural antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) cultured from air samples were found indicating long-distance spread of ARB and microbial viability,” the team writes in their study.

‘Warp Factory’ Simulator from Physics Think Tank to Aid Creation of Star Trek-Style Warp Drives “This would represent a novel way to disperse both viable human pathogens and resistance genes among distant geographical regions,” they add.

The team’s research reveals potentially significant implications, including new public health concerns related to novel ways pathogens and resistant genes may be capable of spreading, as well as how they could reach areas far removed from their point of origin.

Additionally, the team’s findings will likely prompt further investigations into the previously overlooked health risks associated with microbial dispersal at high altitudes, as well as their potential to influence global disease outbreaks.

The team’s study, “Microbial richness and air chemistry in aerosols above the PBL confirm 2,000-km long-distance transport of potential human pathogens,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on September 9, 2024.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet

We humans are so clever that we finally confirmed the discovery the first exoplanet in 1992.

Prior to that anyone who claimed there were exoplanets was a kook with “no evidence of exoplanets” at all.

Human ignorance is a very strong argument for human ignorance. It “proves” nothing else.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

That is a given.

But if there were some form of life outside the Earth, it would be ubiquitous and easily identifiable and practically in every direction we could look.

So far we have found none even though we have spent astronomical amounts of treasure in the search for it........

"But if there were some form of life outside the Earth, it would be ubiquitous and easily identifiable and practically in every direction we could look.
So far we have found none even though we have spent astronomical amounts of treasure in the search for it........"

What are you talking about? How could we prove or disprove life in the universe when we can still only really see huge gas giant planets that occlude their son.

You are operating under the fear that somehow you become smaller and less important the larger and more incredible our universe gets as science advances.

Red; In the late 1960s I read a Sci-Fi story about a girl who was able to see transparent paramesium type creatures floating and moving around in the air. (Feet and yards long, not microscopically small.) Some were floating across the fields others up with the clouds in the sky. She had some visual capability at some spectrum that allowed her to see them when others could not. It was something like this:

p THE SKY IS ALIVE Are Many UFOs Atmospheric Creatures?

I can see high atmosphere bacteria and viruses but Ufos as sky creatures seem dubious.

Let us talk about the “search”.

SETI is looking for radio signals.

I call SETI the Search for Extraterrestrial Idiots.

No advanced civilization is going to send out radio signals in the open so that any other star faring civilization could identify their location and attack at will.

That is an insane strategy.

Only homo sapiens are dumb enough to do that.

You're a brave FReeper, Red Badger. :^)

The rest of the Panspermia keyword, sorted:

Earth-like Planet Discovery Near Distant White Dwarf Offers Clues to Earth's Future [09/09/2024]
The Rock That Fooled Scientists: No Signs of Early Life [08/30/2024]
Nearest Super-Jupiter Snapped By JWST -- And It's A Freezing Cold Giant [07/24/2024]
Deep-Ocean Minerals Generate Oxygen at 13,000 Feet Below Surface [07/23/2024]
Scientists spot 60 stars that appear to show signs of gigantic alien power plants [05/17/2024]
James Webb Space Telescope Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light Years Away, Raising Hopes for Biosignature Detection [05/02/2024]
James Webb Space Telescope Detects Alcohol and Icy Organic Molecules Around a Protostar Pair [03/19/2024]
Solar System's Icy Moons Are Likely Not Hosts To Life, Finds NASA [02/22/2024]
NASA announces new 'super-Earth': Exoplanet orbits in 'habitable zone,' is only 137 light-years away [02/05/2024]
This is what outer space smells like -- and it's stinkier than you'd expect [02/03/2024]
24,000-year-old animal found alive, well and ready to reproduce [01/11/2024]
NASA's Webb Finds Signs of Possible Aurorae on Isolated Brown Dwarf [01/10/2024]
Earth Formed Much Faster Than Previously Thought -- Increases Chances of Alien Life [06/19/2023]
Astronomers find Earth-sized planet covered in volcanoes It's exciting news in the hunt for alien life. [05/22/2023]
Extrasolar Space Dust Could Contain Signs of Alien Life, New Paper Suggests [04/18/2023]
Yerkes Observatory: Restoring the World's Largest Refracting Telescope [03/17/2023]
New Horizons Pluto probe notches 3 new discoveries in outer solar system [03/17/2023]
Strange life forms create an "alien" ecosystem in an abandoned uranium mine [02/07/2023]
NASA's Martian rover has finished hoarding samples that might contain proof of ancient life [02/01/2023]
Team of physicists suggests LIGO could be used to detect giant alien spacecraft [12/20/2022]
The Orbit of a Sun-Like Star Reveals The Nearest Black Hole Ever Found [09/20/2022]
Astronomy Picture of the Day - 4000 Exoplanets [08/14/2022]
Astronomers May Have Discovered the Youngest Planet Ever Detected in Our Galaxy [08/11/2022]
Dwarf planet Ceres powers its geological activity using radioactive materials below its crust [per computer model] [08/06/2022]
Next Week, Webb Will Make History. The Teaser Image Is Already Breaking Our Brains [07/08/2022]
All Those Exoplanets Have Moons, Too New telescopes promise to reveal countless moons scattered across the galaxy [06/05/2022]
THE SUBSTITUTE FOR THE DRAKE EQUATION IN EXTRATERRESTRIAL SPACE ARCHAEOLOGY [03/30/2022]
Scientists want to fire 'indestructible' tardigrades to distant stars at 100 million miles per hour using massive LASERS in a bid to see how interstellar space travel affects them [01/11/2022]
A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space [12/29/2021]
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered organic molecules such as ammonia on Mars that could be indicators life once existed on the Red Planet [11/06/2021]
Study warns of 'oxygen false positives' in search for signs of life on other planets [04/15/2021]
Mars on Earth: Turkish Lake May Hold Clues to Ancient Life on the Red Planet [03/10/2021]
Thick Clumps of Bacteria Can Survive for Years in the Vacuum of Space [08/26/2020]
Extraterrestrial life on Europa or Enceladus could be 'indigenous,' study says [12/17/2019]
NASA Finds Sugar Molecules Essential to Life in Meteorites That Crashed to Earth [11/25/2019]
First Detection of Sugars in Meteorites Gives Clues to Origin of Life [11/21/2019]
NASA's Undersea Robot Crawls Beneath Antarctic Ice in Test for Icy Moons [11/20/2019]
Microbes harvest electrons: Novel process discovered [11/08/2019]
Curiosity rover confirms source of seasonal methane spikes on Mars [04/02/2019]
There Is Definitely Methane on Mars, Scientists Say. But Is It a Sign of Life? [04/01/2019]
There's Something About Space That's Triggering Herpes in Astronauts [03/17/2019]
Dormant viruses activate during spaceflight [03/17/2019]
Space microbes aren't so alien after all [01/08/2019]
Life in deep Earth totals 15 to 23 billion tons of carbon -- hundreds of times more than humans [12/10/2018]
The International Space Station is infested with mysterious [bacteria] [11/23/2018]
The outer space octopus theory [05/16/2018]
This May Be the Best Evidence Yet of a Water Plume on Jupiter's Moon Europa [05/14/2018]
Substantial Lack Of Phosphorus In The Universe Makes Finding Alien Life Unlikely [04/05/2018]
Alien life? Bacteria 'that had not been there' found on ISS hull, Russian cosmonaut says [11/28/2017]
World's largest radio telescope takes shape, to decode cosmic message [07/04/2016]
Mysterious Martian "Cauliflower" May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life [02/05/2016]
NASA's Mars Rover Found Mysterious Growths On Mars That Could Be The Biggest Discovery In Science [02/05/2016]
Scientists Debate Signatures of Alien Life [02/03/2016]
The Fermi Paradox Is Not Fermi's, and It Is Not a Paradox [02/02/2016]
...Antarctic fungi survives Martian conditions...strapped outside the space station for 18 months [01/28/2016]
Curiouser And Curiouser: NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Piles Of Silica On Mars [12/19/2015]
Double Whammy: 2 Meteors Hit Ancient Earth At The Same Time [09/15/2015]
Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life [07/20/2015]
A $100 Million Infusion for SETI Research (two parts: Breakthrough Listen and Breakthrough MESSAGE) [07/20/2015]
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence gets a $100-million boost [07/20/2015]
Russian Entrepreneur Pledges $100 Million in Search for Extraterrestrial Life [07/20/2015]
Don't Believe the Hype About Life on Philae's Comet [07/07/2015]
Alien Life On Philae Comet, Scientists Say [07/06/2015]
Is This Picture a 'Seed' Sent to Earth by Aliens? Scientists Discover Mysterious Organism [03/01/2015]
Cosmic Impacts May Have Seeded Early Earth with Ingredients for Life [01/24/2015]
Strange Comet Discoveries Revealed by Rosetta Spacecraft [01/23/2015]
Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Mysterious Methane of Mars [12/24/2014]
NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars [12/16/2014]
Gamma Ray Bursts Limit The Habitability of Certain Galaxies, Says Study [12/11/2014]
A New Physics Theory of Life [12/10/2014]
Martian meteorite may contain evidence of extraterrestrial life [12/03/2014]
Why Scientists Think Completely Unclassifiable and Undiscovered Life Forms Exist [11/10/2014]
What different religions say about aliens: A brief guide [11/04/2014]
Titanic Liquid: Blinding 'Sunglint' Shines On Saturn's Swampy Moon [11/03/2014]
Water On Earth Is Older Than The Sun [09/27/2014]
Vatican astronomer: Just a matter of time until life found in universe [09/21/2014]
Sea plankton 'found living outside International Space Station' [08/22/2014]
What Would Aliens Actually Look Like? We Asked 7 Experts [08/15/2014]
NASA Announces Science Instruments for Mars 2020 Rover Expedition to the Red Planet [07/31/2014]
Is The Vatican Hiding Aliens? [04/08/2014]
Hidden Ocean Found on Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus, Could Potentially Support Life [04/03/2014]
Vatican scientists co-host conference on alien life forms [03/19/2014]
'Waves' detected on Titan moon's lakes [03/18/2014]
The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignatures & Instruments. [03/17/2014]
Why We Need to go to Europa [03/09/2014]
Intelligent Aliens Could Be Found by 2040 [02/10/2014]
Habitability around F-type Stars [01/06/2014]
NASA: Ancient Martian lake may have supported life [12/09/2013]
Organic Molecules Found in Sutter's Mill Meteorite, Not Previously Found in Any Meteorites [09/16/2013]
Earth life likely came from Mars, study suggests [09/02/2013]
Life DID begin on Mars - then we all travelled to Earth on a meteorite [08/28/2013]
Mapping out the search for life on Jupiter's watery moon Europa [08/08/2013]
We are all made of comet dust [06/16/2013]
Is Earth Rarer Than We Think? [03/23/2013]
Curiosity Rover discovers conditions suited for ancient life on Mars [03/12/2013]
Astrobiologists claim meteorite carried space algae [03/12/2013]
Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life' [03/09/2013]
Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Tardigrade in Moss [03/06/2013]
Man Captures Video Of Strange Explosion In The Sky [01/03/2013]
5 Reasons Mars May Have Never Seen Life [11/17/2012]
'Arsenic-life' bacterium prefers phosphorus after all [10/09/2012]
Solar System Ice: Source of Earth's Water [07/14/2012]
Giant Tropical Lake Found On Saturn Moon Titan [06/13/2012]
Strange bacteria found on South American volcanoes [06/13/2012]
Viking robots found life on Mars in 1976, scientists say [04/13/2012]
Increased CO2 Emissions Will Delay Next Ice Age ( And that is a good thing!) [01/08/2012]
Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe [10/30/2011]
Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe [10/26/2011]
Unsolved Mysteries - The Blob (VIDEO) [10/10/2011]
Comet's water 'like that of Earth's oceans' [10/05/2011]
Telescope shoots video of heavenly halo ("mystery flash" filmed from Mauna Kea, Hawaii) [07/01/2011]
Polar animals' antifreeze has a spiky secret [04/18/2011]
Volcanic origin of proteins? [03/23/2011]
Did scientists discover bacteria in meteorites? [03/06/2011]
Exclusive: NASA Scientist Claims Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite [03/05/2011]
NASA Scientist Claims Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite [03/05/2011]
Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets [01/23/2011]
Nobel Laureate Claims Teleported DNA [01/22/2011]
Origin of life on Earth: the 'natural' asymmetry of biological molecules may have come from space [01/07/2011]
Backing off an arsenic-eating claim (NASA search for life) [12/17/2010]
The Pioneer Anomaly, a 30-Year-Old Cosmic Mystery, May Be Resolved At Last [12/16/2010]
Life's Building Blocks Found on Surprising Meteorite [12/16/2010]
Forests might be detectable on extrasolar planets [12/13/2010]
Scientists: NASA's alleged discovery of arsenic-based life is crap [12/08/2010]
NASA: Life in Space? Not Quite, but Life That Thrives on Arsenic [12/02/2010]
Life as we don't know it ... on Earth? [12/02/2010]
NASA's 'Extraterrestrial' Announcement Gets Blown Out of Proportion [12/01/2010]
Nasa raises hopes of finding extra-terrestrials, discovery of 'alien' bacteria, survives in arsenic [12/01/2010]
NASA to make MAJOR ALIENS REVELATION this week [11/30/2010]
NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2 [11/30/2010]
spotted 'mysterious pulse of light' from direction of newly-discovered '2nd Earth' two years ago [10/01/2010]
Space is the final frontier for evolution, study claims [08/24/2010]
Beer microbes live 553 days outside ISS [08/23/2010]
Origins, Evolution, and Distribution of Life in the Cosmos: Panspermia, Genetics, Microbes, ... [08/01/2010]
New Theory for Life's First Energy Source [ pyrophosphite ] [06/22/2010]
Hints of Life Found on Saturn Moon [06/04/2010]
Jupiter Moon's Ice-Covered Ocean Is Rich in Oxygen [05/28/2010]
Water Ice Discovered on Asteroid for First Time [04/29/2010]
Deepest Volcanic Sea Vents Found; "Like Another World" - may harbor unknown creatures [04/12/2010]
British scientist claims we're all aliens on Earth [02/03/2010]
Kansas scientists probe mysterious possible comet strikes on Earth [12/14/2009]
Martian Colony in Britain [12/02/2009]
Fossils of Martian bugs found on meteorite that landed on Earth 13,000 years ago [11/26/2009]
Lava Cave Minerals Actually Microbe Poop [clues in the search for life on Mars and beyond] [11/25/2009]
Life-giving compound found in space [08/18/2009]
Building block of life found on comet [08/17/2009]
Did Comets Contain Key Ingredients For Life On Earth? [06/06/2009]
Methane-producing mineral discovered on Mars [03/28/2009]
Are You Cereous? Life Came from an Asteroid? [03/06/2009]
Kepler, SETI and Ancient Probes [03/05/2009]
Spanish scientists confirm the existence of electric activity in Titan [and life's precursors?] [10/22/2008]
"Space rock" reveals life's origins [10/07/2008]
NASA Identifies Carbon-rich Molecules In Meteors As The 'Origin Of Life' [09/26/2008]
Tracing Our Interstellar Relatives [09/12/2008]
Water Bears' Able To Survive Exposure To Vacuum Of Space [09/09/2008]
Silent spring [07/25/2008]
Is Ice a Catalyst for Life Throughout the Universe? [06/23/2008]
Sun's Movement Through Milky Way... Comets Hurtling...Life Extinctions [05/02/2008]
A Blood Libel on Our Civilization. Can I expell Expelled? [04/28/2008]
Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life [04/06/2008]
Organic Molecule, Amino Acid-Like, Found In Constellation Sagittarius [03/28/2008]
Darwinism; Too Old-Fashioned To Be True [10/28/2007]
Germs sent to space come back meaner, scientist reports [09/25/2007]
Broncos player ordered to pay child support in Georgia [08/26/2007]
Did Life Begin On Comets? [08/21/2007]
Fiery rock will test whether life came from space [08/13/2007]
Rutgers scientists debunk a life-origin theory [08/09/2007]
Greatest Mysteries: Does Alien Life Exist? [08/06/2007]
Interplanetary Transfer of Photosynthesis [04/07/2007]
Trying to Meet the Neighbors [03/13/2007]
NASA's new quest: Alien life [02/25/2007]
Astrobiological Prospects for Faster Evolution and Importance of Cold Conditions [02/13/2007]
Life or something, somewhere, like it [02/11/2007]
Empiricists, Theorists Clash in Search for Alien Life [02/06/2007]
Life may lie deep below Martian surface [01/30/2007]
Microbe fixes nitrogen at a blistering 92 C, may offer clues to evolution of nitrogen fixation [01/09/2007]
Astrobiology: How small nations think big [12/29/2006]
Shotgun sequencing finds nanoorganisms [12/22/2006]
Meteorite may hold secret to life outside earth [12/04/2006]
Meteorite yields life origin clue [12/02/2006]
Pale Blue Dot III: An Astrobiological Field Report [11/27/2006]
We are the aliens, says Cardiff professor [11/16/2006]
Searching For 'Our Alien Origins' [11/14/2006]
Cheating DNA Death: How an Extremophile Repairs Shattered Chromosomes [09/27/2006]
Organic Molecules Found in Diverse Space Places [08/11/2006]
Physicist: Cell-like structures could be microbes from space [06/04/2006]
Some scientists think humans descended from Martian microbes [04/04/2006]
Clandestine comets found in main asteroid belt - Earth oceans origin [03/24/2006]
Water signs on Saturn moon raises possibility of extra-terrestrial life [03/10/2006]
Red rain in India may consist out of alien lifeforms? [03/06/2006]
Are There Aliens Already on Earth? [02/20/2006]
Partial Ingredients For DNA And Protein Found Around Star [12/31/2005]
SETI and Intelligent Design [12/02/2005]
Gallo's Sperm for Sale Over Internet: Offers 50k Discount To Women With Natural Blonde Hair [11/07/2005]
Study: Meteor Crashes Jump-Start Life [08/10/2005]
Groups gather for human sexuality summit [06/19/2005]
Comet put on list of potential Earth impactors [06/02/2005]
Masturbate-thon in San Francisco [05/29/2005]
There's No Oil Shortage [05/03/2005]
Britney's husband reproducing at an alarming rate [04/15/2005]
Detritus of life abounds in the atmosphere [03/31/2005]
Salt of the Early Earth [02/06/2005]
Small Comets and Our Origins [10/19/2004]
An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere [09/06/2004]
petroleum will not run out before we burn up [07/23/2004]
Did comets flood Earth's oceans? [06/16/2004]
Study Finds Signs of Life in Ancient Lava [04/26/2004]
No Moon, no life on Earth, suggests theory [03/20/2004]
Creature Features: Fossil Hunting on Mars [03/16/2004]
Comets spread Earth-life around galaxy, say scientists [02/12/2004]
Deep Under the Sea, Boiling Founts of Life Itself [09/09/2003]
Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space [05/23/2003]
Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space [05/22/2003]
Heavenly Bodies Stir Up Routine Catastrophes [03/18/2003]
What are Nanobacteria? [03/13/2003]
Research Finds Life 1000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor [01/03/2003]
Microorganism Isolated In Space [12/18/2002]
Superman Bug May Be Migrant From Mars [11/04/2002]
Astronomy Picture of the Day 9-30-02 [09/30/2002]
Tough Earth bug may be from Mars [09/26/2002]
Tough Little Microbe May Be Martian [09/25/2002]
Life from space theory boosted [01/09/2002]

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