[HN Gopher] Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Ins...
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       Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other
       Worlds
        
       Author : theafh
       Score  : 78 points
       Date   : 2021-05-24 15:52 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
        
       | ISL wrote:
       | I was lucky as an undergrad to attend a small lecture by Tommy
       | Gold [1] near the end of his life, where he advocated the ideas
       | described in his book Deep Hot Biosphere. He was often ahead of
       | his time and unafraid to take controversial positions to get
       | there (including the now-accepted, but once derided, phenomenon
       | that we know today as the pulsar).
       | 
       | You might be right again, Tommy.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold
        
         | hn8788 wrote:
         | Sort of off topic, but I wonder if that idea was part of the
         | inspiration for the origin story of Godzilla, or if it's just a
         | coincidence.
        
       | zzzbra wrote:
       | to think that some people called the new godzilla movies dumb...
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | The idea is that the radioactivity produces Hydrogen and
         | Sulfate, and some bacteria (or achaea?) can "burn" the Hydrogen
         | extracting an Oxygen from the Sulfate. So no Godzilla down
         | there.
        
           | eloff wrote:
           | Unless there are little animals eating the bacteria, and
           | bigger animals eating them, etc.
           | 
           | I mean it's preposterous, but not impossible if for some
           | reason the rock was porous enough. Maybe inside a small moon
           | or asteroid.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-24 23:00 UTC)