A treasure hunt for microbes in Chile’s Atacama desert

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/treasure-hunt-microbes-chile-atacama-desert

by Petiver • 4 years ago

33 5 4 years ago

ascotan• 4 years ago

There is water here but not as rain. The cold of the ocean sometimes creates fog banks that shirt along the shore. It doesn't surprise me that life might be able to be able survive like this.

flobosg• 4 years ago

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camanchaca for more info.

arkis22• 4 years ago

wow, thats an incredible picture. thanks

aramachandran7• 4 years ago

“When we came down to stay at the station starting in 2001, we brought everything with us: showers, toilets, generators, pumps, kitchen sink…” recalls Chris McKay, an astrogeophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, whose name is still visible, written in ink on the Yungay research station wall. But despite the humble settings and the lack of water, “it was magical,” he says. “We would sit around after dinner and talk science. There was no phone, no internet, just us.”

sghosh2• 4 years ago

Such a cool article. There's a similar movie about finding Microbiome deep in the Amazon Rainforest. It's called The Last Tepui, Alex Honnold leads a team to go climbing and look for wildlife and bacteria on the ridge of a mountain deep in the rainforest. Crazy hiking and climbing! But they find some really amazing species.

A treasure hunt for microbes in Chile’s Atacama desert

Related Stories