CRUSH2LIFE

微生物生活在地球表面有水的地方，在冰盖和冰川的河床上发现的水也没有什么不同。微生物生长在冰盖下，帮助将冰川压碎的岩石和沉积物转化为肥料（N，P和Fe），帮助周围溪流，湖泊，沿海沃茨和海洋中的微生物生长。这些微生物还产生温室气体，如二氧化碳和甲烷。生活在冰盖下的微生物，例如南极洲下面的冰下湖泊，在哪里获得能量生长是一个问题，因为在这些寒冷，黑暗的栖息地没有光线。冰盖下的微生物群落注定要灭绝，除非有什么东西不断为它们提供除光之外的能源。我们认为这个“东西”与冰川压碎河床上的岩石有关。矿物质通过微小的正负电荷结合在一起。这些电荷通常相互抵消，但当矿物被冰川的巨大重量分裂时，它们的表面含有微小的正负电荷，称为自由基。这些微小的电荷非常活泼，活泼到正电荷从水中夺取OH并留下氢气，负电荷从水中夺取H并留下过氧化氢。某些类型的微生物喜欢以氢为食，因为它能产生大量的能量。过氧化氢对微生物并不立即友好，但它确实与碎石中的有机物反应非常好，产生二氧化碳和其他小有机分子，微生物可以将其用作能源。一些微生物将联合收割机氢气与二氧化碳结合以产生甲烷，而其他微生物可以将甲烷用作能源。因此，冰川和冰盖对岩石的挤压和润湿产生了一系列化学物质，这些化学物质可以被许多不同的细菌用作能源。冰川和冰盖不断地压碎它们的基岩，因此我们相信这为生活在它们床上的微生物提供了持续的能量和化学物质来源。我们需要通过在实验室中粉碎简单的岩石（如石英）和有机物质（如泥炭）来测试这些想法，并测量当我们向粉碎的材料加水时，哪些类型的化学物质会从粉碎的材料中释放出来。如果我们是正确的，这将是了解生命如何在冰川和冰盖下生存的一大步。这很重要，因为在过去，当地球在雪球地球上完全冻结时，生命很可能在覆盖大部分陆地表面的冰盖下生存。我们希望核冬天永远不会出现，但如果真的出现了，微生物形式的生命将在冰盖下继续存在。冰盖出现在宇宙中除了地球之外的行星上，它可能只是破碎提供了维持生命的化学物质。CRUSH2LIFE将检验我们认为这些例子有任何实质内容的想法是否正确。

Microbes live wherever water is found at the Earth's surface, and the water found at the beds of ice sheets and glaciers is no different. Microbes grow beneath ice sheets, and help to convert the rock and sediment that glaciers crush up into fertiliser (N, P and Fe) that helps the microscopic plants in surrounding streams, lakes, coastal waters and oceans to grow. The microbes also produce greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane. Just where the microbes which live beneath the ice sheets, for example in the subglacial lakes beneath Antarctica, get their energy to grow is a problem, since there is no light in these cold, dark habitats. The microbial communities beneath ice sheets are destined to die out unless something is continually supplying them with an energy source other than light. We think that "something" is something to do with glaciers crushing the rocks at their beds. The minerals are held together by tiny positive and negative electrical charges. These charges cancel each other out usually, but when the mineral is split by the huge weight of the glacier, their surfaces contain tiny positive and negative electrical charges, called radicals. These tiny charges are very reactive, so reactive that the positive charges grab OH from water and leave behind hydrogen gas, and the negative charges grab H from water and leave behind hydrogen peroxide. particular types of microbes enjoy feeding on hydrogen, since it produces lots of energy. The hydrogen peroxide is not immediately friendly to microbes, but it does react very well with organic matter in the crushed rock, producing carbon dioxide and other small organic molecules that microbes can use for energy sources. Some microbes combine hydrogen gas with carbon dioxide to make methane, and other microbes can use the methane as an energy source. So, the crushing and wetting of rock by glaciers and ice sheets produces a set of chemicals that can be used as energy sources by lots of different bacteria. Glaciers and ice sheets crush their bedrock continuously, and so we believe that this gives a continuous source of energy and chemicals to microbes living at their beds. We need to test these ideas by crushing simple rocks, such as quartz, and organic matter, such as peat, in the laboratory and measuring what types of chemicals come off the crushed material when we add water to it. If we're right, this will be a big step in understanding how life persists under glaciers and ice sheets. This is important, because in the past, when the earth was completely frozen on Snowball Earth, life was likely to have persisted under the ice sheets that covered large parts of the land surface. We hope that a Nuclear Winter never arises, but if it did, life in the form of microbes would persist beneath the ice sheets. Ice sheets occur on planets in the Universe apart from Earth, and it just might be crushing provides the chemicals to sustain life beneath them. CRUSH2LIFE will test whether we are right in thinking that these examples have any substance.