- Italian researchers claim to have found conclusive evidence
that life on Earth arrived from outer space.
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- Bruno D'Argenio, a geologist working for the Italian
National Research Council, and Giuseppe Geraci, professor of molecular
biology at Naples University, identified and brought back to life extraterrestrial
microorganisms lodged inside 4.5 billion-year-old meteorites kept at Naples'
mineralogical museum.
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- "When in contact with a physiological solution,
they became visible and began to move," D'Argenio said while presenting
the finding at the Italian Space Agency yesterday.
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- The bacteria, called "cryms" (for crystal microbes)
by the researchers, remained dormant for billions of years and survived
extreme ambient conditions - a clear indication, according to the researchers,
that "life can exist everywhere in the solar system, though in a quiescent
state."
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- Once brought back to life, the cryms were cloned by the
researchers and their DNA analyzed.
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- "Their genetic code is unlike any known on Earth,"
said Giovanni F. Bignami, scientific director of the Italian Space Agency.
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- In studying the bacteria, the team found that they tend
to gather in clusters. The bugs are also killed easily with antibiotics.
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- Disputing critics who suggested that the meteorites were
contaminated with terrestrial microorganisms, Bignami added that the bacteria
came back to life after the samples were sterilized at 950 degrees Celsius
and doused in alcohol.
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- The discovery, if borne out, would strengthened the "panspermia"
theory, first suggested by chemist Svante Aarhenius in 1900. According
to this theory, outer space seeded Earth with primitive life forms about
4 billion years ago. The theory was recently supported by Noble Prize winner
Francis Crick, as well as noted scientists Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe.
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- "Life would have formed as an initial seed in the
protoplanetary nebula from which all the planets originated. This microorganism
can be found ... in planetary bodies and in the meteors fallen to Earth,"
said Bignami.
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- The Italian researchers have also identified microorganisms
identical to the "cryms" found in the Naples meteorites in 50
samples of billion-year-old terrestrial rocks from five continents.
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- "I'm skeptical, very skeptical," biologist
Martino Rizzotti of Padua University told the daily newspaper La Stampa.
"Those bacteria seem to be too similar to the terrestrial ones. I
can't avoid thinking about possible contaminations."
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- Margherita Hack, director of the Inter-University Regional
Center for Astrophysics and Cosmology in Trieste, is more positive. "It
is very likely that life is spread in universe. This is an interesting
result, but it requires more study to be completely accepted," she
said.
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- Today the researchers present their findings at the Accademia
dei Lincei (Academy of the Lynxes) in Rome, a prestigious scholarly organization
that counts Galileo Galilei among its members.
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