[LibWhacker]

. . . are encouraged in their belief that microbes can survive on such a journey for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of years, by recent discoveries of microbes that have survived for similar periods encased in rock in the Earth.

Hadn't heard there was any direct evidence microbes could do this. To me it's always seemed like the weak link in arguments for panspermia. But if this is true, it really blows the lid off, imo, and we can stop digging around in earth's tide pools looking for the origin of life. Who knows in what strange and utterly bizarre place life might have arisen?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Who knows in what strange and utterly bizarre place life might have arisen?"

Yeah, as billorites said a few posts ago, like just outside Burlington....

[blam]

"Who knows in what strange and utterly bizarre place life might have arisen?"

Sir Fred Holyle thinks it came from deep space.