`` Achievement overturning common sense '' microorganisms from underground rocks discovered by the University of Tokyo Group February 16 4:55
A research group at the University of Tokyo discovered that microorganisms inhabit rocks excavated from the South Pacific ocean floor. The rocks are thought to be inhabitable in the past, and the research group says it is an unconventional achievement.
Microorganisms such as bacteria are increasingly found underground, but only in places where energy can be obtained, such as in sediments rich in organic matter and in hydrothermal vents, and widely underground called basalt. It has been thought that living things cannot be inhabited among the common rocks that exist.
Under these circumstances, a research group of Associate Professor Yohei Suzuki of the University of Tokyo dug out basalt underground more than 100 meters below the 5,000-meter seabed in the South Pacific so as to prevent microbial contamination, and examined for organisms.
As a result, they discovered that a lot of small bacteria, about 1 micron, inhabit the basalt streaks. The streak-like part is that part of the basalt turned clayey over a long period of time, so we are analyzing the details of the types of bacteria found and how they obtain energy.
Associate Professor Suzuki said, “Nobody has looked into it, so I thought it was possible, but I was surprised at the existence of living things. It showed the possibility that living things could exist widely in ordinary rocks. It's an overturn. "
The latest scientific achievements approaching the mystery of underground creatures will be introduced on Science Television, which will be broadcast on E-Tele at 11:30 pm on the 16th.