- INNSBRUCK, Austria (UPI)
- A team of Austrian scientists has discovered what they say is the first
evidence that bacteria can not only exist but can also grow and reproduce
in cloud water.
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- Brigit Sattler of the University of Innsbruck and colleagues
are now trying to characterize the bacteria, but Sattler told United Press
International she "can't exclude" the possibility these bacteria
may cause disease.
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- The Austrian team found the bacteria in cloud droplets
at altitudes of approximately 10,000 feet (3,100 meters), and at temperatures
between 14 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 and 0 degrees Celsius).
The findings will be reported in the January 15 issue of Geophysical Research
Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union in Washington.
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- Sattler is just "It could be possible they are
pathogenic. But the fact is that bacteria from the ground and water can
be brought into the atmosphere by wind or sea spray, " she said.
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- Researchers have long known that air currents can carry
bacteria, but scientists were never certain if they were actually active
and capable of reproducing in the air.
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- At least some of the bacteria are specialized to survive
in the cold -- some are found in snow, for example. Sattler said she wants
to find out the mechanisms the bacteria use to survive in such an environment
and to learn more about their metabolism as well as their role in that
environment.
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- One of the researchers, Hans Puxbaum, an atmospheric
chemist at the Technical University of Vienna, noted the bacteria stop
reproducing when the temperature reaches around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15
degrees Celsius).
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- Puxbaum also said the bacteria may well play a role in
the weather formation, acting as nuclei around which water can freeze and
fall to Earth as snow or ice.
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- The research team became interested in looking for bacteria
in such an inhospitable environment after analyzing snow in alpine glaciers,
added Puxbaum. In those studies, the scientists found hydrocarbons whose
presence could not be explained by man-made or atmospheric processes, but
instead were characteristic of bacteria.
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reserved.
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