This sustainable life doesn’t require oxygen OR sunlight

Scientists have long sought to define the basic requirements for life and a recent discovery has turned leading theories upside-down. Modeling expectations after our own needs and the life we’ve observed sounds reasonable until a new variable is introduced that creates an entirely different paradigm. Newly discovered microbes living underneath glaciers in Antarctica are thriving without the presence of oxygen OR sunlight.

That means life could be hiding in a variety of other places previously thought impossible, including below icecaps on Mars and underground cryo-volcanic flows on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Life that’s independent of oxygen and sunlight also has implications for permaculture and sustainable living. If our environment changes drastically it probably won’t be a question of whether or not life survives on Earth, but rather if humans do. However much attention we may call to the ecosystems we’re destroying with global warming, irresponsible lumbering, oil spills, and carbon emissions the fundamental kicker is a desire for self-preservation.

The newly discovered microbes fuel metabolic functions by processing iron and excreting a reddish rust mixture, dubbed Blood Falls, according to ecoWordly. They’re also able to survive concentrated amounts of chlorides and sulfates which kill many other types of microbes.

Despite the freedom to live without oxygen or sunlight, these microbes still exist in what seems to be a fragile environment maintained by healthy glaciers and high levels of salinity which prevents some pools of water from freezing. A melting glacier presents an imminent problem because it could dilute the mixture and shift iron deposits out of reach.

The organisms are thought to be some of the oldest discovered yet, tagged at about 1.5 million years based on samples from surrounding geological features. It paints a new picture on how life first started and shifts expectations on identifying life currently beyond our awareness.