CRUSH2LIFE

微生物生活在地球表面任何有水的地方，在冰盖和冰川床上发现的水也不例外。微生物在冰盖下生长，帮助将冰川碾碎的岩石和沉积物转化为肥料（氮、磷和铁），帮助周围溪流、湖泊、沿海水域和海洋中的微生物生长。这些微生物还会产生温室气体，比如二氧化碳和甲烷。生活在冰盖下的微生物，比如南极洲的冰下湖泊，从哪里获得能量生长是个问题，因为在这些寒冷、黑暗的栖息地没有光。冰盖下的微生物群落注定要灭绝，除非有什么东西能持续地为它们提供光以外的能源。我们认为“某物”与冰川碾压河床上的岩石有关。这些矿物通过微小的正电荷和负电荷结合在一起。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电荷和负电荷，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带走OH，留下氢气，负电荷从水中带走H，留下过氧化氢。特殊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是立即友好的，但它与碎石中的有机物反应很好，产生二氧化碳和其他微生物可以用作能源的小有机分子。一些微生物将氢气与二氧化碳结合产生甲烷，而其他微生物可以利用甲烷作为能源。因此，冰川和冰盖对岩石的挤压和湿润会产生一系列化学物质，这些化学物质可以被许多不同的细菌用作能量来源。冰川和冰原不断地挤压着它们的基岩，所以我们相信这为生活在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）来验证这些想法，并测量当我们向破碎的物质加水时，会产生哪些类型的化学物质。如果我们是对的，这将是了解冰川和冰盖下生命如何生存的一大步。这一点很重要，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持续存在。我们希望核冬天永远不会出现，但如果真的发生了，微生物形式的生命将会在冰盖下持续存在。冰原存在于地球以外的宇宙行星上，它可能会提供维持生命所需的化学物质。CRUSH2LIFE将检验我们是否正确地认为这些例子有任何实质内容。

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.