EXTREME SHRIMP

EXTREME SHRIMP MAY ILLUSTRATE MANY IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE FORM POSSIBILITIES  

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 Photo Courtesy NOAA

 Oceanographers and marine biologists have been studying a species of shrimp that live near hydrothermal vents in the Caribbean. It has been widely reported that the study along with other targeted data may reveal important aspects of factors relative to the potential for life on other not so earth like planets. You wouldn't think the shrimp live where they do. They make their home within inches of thermal vents that should simply result in boiled shrimp. The hydrothermal vents they frequent are located at depths as deep as 7,500 feet in a realm of complete darkness and spewing out water that can reach 750 degrees Fahrenheit. However water only an inch away is cool enough for the shrimp to live. The shrimp dine on carbohydrates produced by bacteria living inside the vents. Scientist speculate that if these bacteria can live in these boiling vents that similar life forms may exist on other, not very life like planets such icy moons within our own solar system. 

 We think the scientists have it right if we restrict the speculation to bacteria like life forms. There has long been evidence that viruses can survive exposure to space and recently Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station found sea plankton surviving on the exterior. (See: SEA PLANKTON FOUND ON EXTERIOR OF ISS). But e think it is a long stretch of the imagination to expect to find more complex organisms like shrimp just because bacteria are present. While the shrimp observed are blind they did evolve from scratch near the vents. They are clearly identifiable as shrimp, with many identical features with species found in the water column where light penetrates. Its rather clear that the shrimp of th events evolved as shrimp in more complex environment. Their ancestors found a ready food source near the vents and an environment relatively free of predators. Over time the shrimp simply shed some evolutionary developments that produced no advantage in the new environment such as eyes. While it is becoming increasingly evident that simple life forms like bacteria may be present on some very un earthly planets and possibly even in dust clouds in space we shouldn't expect more complex organisms unless the planet once had more complex environments. Its a simple point, shrimp can't evolve out of bacteria in an environment that is only good for bacteria.

 We think that the most important information coming out of these deep sea vent studies and accidental discoveries is growing confirmation of the cautionary note we sound in our E book PROTOCOLS Originally started as a series of posts under the series title SPACE AS AN OCEAN. That point is that tiny simple organisms are probably more common in space than we think and before we go bringing Martian and other soil samples back to earth we better have better microscopic protocols than what we had for our moon missions. Where there are virus and bacteria there will eventually be some that are toxic to us. We may be a long time finding Yoda or ET but a deadly bacteria may be closer than we think.

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