Latest news with #PolishAcademyofSciences
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
These strange, hybrid Earth lifeforms could survive on Mars, new study hints
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Earth-based lifeforms known as lichens may be tough enough to survive on Mars, a new study suggests. Scientists came to this conclusion after blasting the lichens with a year's worth of Martian radiation in less than a day during a lab experiment — and the terrestrial lifeforms survived the process. Mars is not an easy place to live. The Red Planet is essentially one giant desert with a minimal atmosphere, low temperatures and no liquid water at its surface. But the biggest barrier to life on Mars is the lack of a strong magnetic field, which protects against the constant bombardment of ionizing radiation from cosmic rays and solar flares, which can damage living cells and mutate their DNA. One group of living things that may be able to survive these extreme conditions is lichens, symbiotic associations between fungi and photosynthetic bacteria and/or algae. These hybrid lifeforms, which are not considered true organisms but are listed as species on the three of life, work together to stay alive and many are extremophiles, capable of tolerating no hydration and extreme temperatures for long periods. Some species have even survived being directly exposed to the vacuum of space. In the new study, published March 31 in the journal IMA Fungus, researchers tested how two lichen species — Diploschistes muscorum and Cetraria aculeata — reacted to ionizing radiation under Martian conditions. To do this, the team placed the lifeforms in a specialized vacuum chamber at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, which replicated the atmospheric pressure, temperatures and composition on the Red Planet. They bombarded the lichens with a year's worth of Martian radiation in just 5 hours. Both species were able to remain metabolically active throughout the tests. Related: Which animals will be the first to live on the moon and Mars? "These findings expand our understanding of biological processes under simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation," Kaja Skubała, a researcher at the Institute of Botany at the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, said in a statement. "Ultimately, this research deepens our knowledge of lichen adaptation and their potential for colonizing extraterrestrial environments." Of the two species, D. muscorum showed the greatest resistance to the radiation, sustaining less damage to its cells, which suggests that some lichens will be better suited to Martian conditions than others. However, it is unlikely that any species would be able to survive on Mars unattended for long periods, as there is no known liquid water at the surface, which all of Earth's lifeforms need to survive. This is the reason why it is unlikely that there is any extraterrestrial life currently alive on Mars. According to the researchers, the new experiments show that lichens are prime candidates for being taken on future Mars missions, although there are several resilient species other than D. muscorum that could also make the trip. But lichens are not the only lifeforms that could potentially survive on the Red Planet. One extremophile group that has long been considered as future Martian tourists is tardigrades. These microscopic critters are nearly indestructible and can survive extreme temperatures, crushing pressures, total dehydration and the vacuum of space, largely thanks to an ability to switch off their metabolism and enter a state of suspended animation. Other candidates include mosses — plants with similar abilities to lichens. Some desert moss species have even been shown to be resilient to gamma rays and liquid nitrogen, hinting that they too could fare well on Mars. RELATED STORIES —NASA may have unknowingly found and killed alien life on Mars 50 years ago, scientist claims —Longest molecules ever found on Mars may be remnants of building blocks of life —NASA Mars rover finds 'first compelling detection' of potential fossilized life on the Red Planet Single-celled microorganisms, such as bacteria, might also be able to survive on Mars if they were sheltered from radiation, living underground. Research has shown that these microbes could also survive for hundreds of millions of years beneath the surface in a hibernation-like state. However, the first terrestrial lifeforms to touch down on Mars will likely be a species that is naturally very poorly suited to living on Mars — humans. NASA intends on launching the first crewed mission to the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s, when they will get a taste of how tough it is to survive there.
The National
04-04-2025
- Health
- The National
Make-up's ancient history discovered in Omani shells
Archaeological research near the Hajar Mountains in Oman has shed light on the history of cosmetics and proved there is nothing new about people wanting to enhance their appearance. A study, based on the analysis of half a dozen shells found at the Salut archaeological site, has revealed Iron Age people used black and green pigments that were kept in shells. Many of these were discovered in burial sites, indicating that the make-up may have been considered important in the afterlife. 'In the same way they were burying pots, stuff they used in daily life, maybe they were also burying them [cosmetic shells] to accompany the dead,' said first author of the study, Dr Michele Degli Esposti, from the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Historically, pigments such as kohl have been regarded, not necessarily with scientific evidence, as being of medicinal value, perhaps because they were thought to prevent infection. 'It might be possible that ancient people reckoned kohl to have some curative property, so they wanted to give their dead some way to protect themselves,' Dr Degli Esposti said. 'This can just be speculation. The farther back we go in time, the more so, because you don't find literary sources.' The shells were also found around dwellings, a sign that the use of cosmetics was part and parcel of daily life. The paper 'A First Glance at Pre‐Islamic Pigments in Shells From Salut (Sultanate of Oman)' is published in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Researchers looked at six cosmetic shells, three from an Iron Age settlement dated between 1300 BCE and 100 CE, and three from graves thought to be from the second or first millennium BCE. Archaeologists have found much earlier evidence for the use of cosmetics in the Middle East, with red ochre having been unearthed at a site in Umm Al Quwain dating back at least 6,000 years. Traditionally, both men and women in the region have used the black cosmetic kohl, especially around the eyes, so Dr Degli Esposti said it was possible the pigments found at Salut were used by anyone. 'Projecting what we see now in the past, we could suggest that both men and women were using it, especially if it was also endowed with medical properties,' Dr Degli Esposti said. 'It happens quite a lot that we project modern ethnographic observations into the past. Often you must be cautious with that, but in many cases it's the only way we have to build things into a broader context and into a narrative.' A central part of the research was discovering the chemical composition of the colours. The shells were sent to Italy, where researchers at the University of Milan found that the green pigments included minerals containing copper, while the black pigments had minerals containing manganese. The pigments also tend to contain calcite and quartz along with, probably, water and oil, although the recent research did not test for these. Another of the paper's authors, Prof Andrea Zerboni, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Milan, said the region's arid environment was good for preserving archaeological materials, including pigments. 'In this case, the pigments have been preserved thanks to the low presence of water in the sediments that hosted them, which prevented extreme alteration and the removal of the material,' he said. 'Earth science investigation techniques were used to study the mineralogical composition of the pigments and to understand how they have been preserved over time." Prof Zerboni added that the geology of the area influenced the development of the funerary landscape of the Salut region. 'It is interesting to observe how communities of the Iron Age and later periods consistently sought to take advantage of the landscape's natural forms to construct their funerary monuments, placing them on hilltops, or slopes, or associating them with large boulders present in the area,' he said. As well as looking at the pigments, the researchers who carried out the study were interested in the shells themselves, which they identified as coming from species of bivalve mollusc commonly found in the area. The paper offers initial results from a wider project that will analyse about 30 cosmetic shells from several locations, including some in the UAE, such as Tell Abraq, a site on the border of Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain where Dr Degli Esposti is currently working. Other samples in this larger follow-up study come from Siniyah Island in Umm Al Quwain and date from the sixth to the eighth centuries CE. 'This is nice because it extends the samples and also it comes closer to the modern day, which shows the continuity,' Dr Degli Esposti said.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Lichens Thrive in Harsh Mars-Like Conditions, Groundbreaking Study Finds
Lichens are true pioneers, setting themselves up in environments so harsh as to be considered virtually barren. Given time, they can lay the foundations for whole fields of stone, sand, or even rooftops to transform into diverse ecosystems. So why not Mars? A team of biologists from Jagiellonian University in Poland and the Polish Academy of Sciences investigated just that in an experiment conducted inside the Polish Academy of Sciences' Space Research Center. They wanted to know which physical and biochemical properties might help lichens survive Mars-like conditions while remaining metabolically active. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that the metabolism of the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis remained active while being in an environment resembling the surface of Mars," says lead author Kaja Skubala, a botanist from Jagiellonian University in Poland. "These findings expand our understanding of biological processes under simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation – one of the most critical challenges for survival and habitability on Mars." Lichens are bizarre structures in which a fungus and an algae or cyanobacteria partner up to form a colony that can survive conditions they never would on their own. They can enter a state of dormancy when times are tough, reviving on contact with water to feed and grow once more. Like the tardigrades that sometimes inhabit their nooks and crannies their ability to survive Earth's harshest conditions makes them prime candidates for extraterrestrial study. Because the fungi-algae duos are fundamentally reliant upon one another, each kind of lichen is still named as if it is a single species. The two species entered in this Mars simulation were the crusty, pale, and bulbous Diploschistes muscorum, and the dark, branching, seaweed-like Cetraria aculeata. Each lichen was awoken with a light misting of water before being placed inside a vacuum chamber for five hours, with the first two hours set to a Martian daytime surface temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (about 64 degrees Fahrenheit), dropping gradually into a two-hour-long Martian night at -26 degrees Celsius. Gas consisting of 95 percent carbon dioxide was pumped into the tank to simulate a Martian atmosphere at ground level, with humidity ranging from an extremely arid 8 to 32 percent. The pressure was set to a very low 5 to 7 millibars, which is more than 1000 millibars lower than the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level. How lichens cope with Martian levels of UV radiation and other harsh conditions has already been studied extensively, so Skubala and team were focused instead on the ionizing power of X-rays. The lichens were zapped with a 50-gray dose of X-ray radiation, comparable to what the surface of Mars can receive in a year via energetic Solar particles and flares. The red planet has a thin atmosphere and no global magnetic field; two factors that protect us Earthlings from the solar onslaught. Only one of the species survived these conditions: D. muscorum. The researchers think its heavy crust, laced with calcium oxalate crystals inside and out, might have protected it from radiation damage. "While calcium oxalate has a relatively low atomic number, which makes it less effective at absorbing X-rays than heavier elements, the dense crystal deposits on the [lichen's] surface could allow calcium atoms to interact with low-energy X-rays, absorbing part of their energy," the authors write. The other species, C. aculeata, did not fare so well, though it was selected for its ability to survive extreme Earth environments in the Arctic and Antarctic. The scientists knew the melanin pigments that give this lichen its dark brown to black colour would protect it from unbridled Martian sunburn, since the coloration can filter radiation in the UVB and UVA spectrum. But melanin is also a powerful antioxidant, which the team thought may help it withstand ionizing radiation. Yet, C. aculeata experienced high levels of stress from the X-rays, which showed up as damaged membranes, failing enzymes, and hydrogen peroxide build-up. Notably, this lichen has no calcium oxalate, which may be a deciding factor in Mars survival. Of course, whether we should introduce new species to unknown environments to achieve our goals is a different question – one we humans don't exactly have the best track record with. That's if it's even possible: a simulation like this provides just a small taste of the harsh realities of the red planet. "Ultimately, this research deepens our knowledge of lichen adaptation and their potential for colonizing extraterrestrial environments," Skubala says. This research was published in IMA Fungus. Climate Change Could Wipe 40% Off Global Economy, Study Predicts Oxygen Levels in Earth's Lakes Are Plummeting, Study Reveals Scientists Discovered An Amazing Practical Use For World's Leftover Coffee Grounds
