@@VeganAncientDragonKnight sure, just saying that "Well those plants are not exactly plants, they are mushrooms." works too, and can probably give you a little more freedom.
there could be some type of bioluminescence fungi as they do actually exist, we have them here in Australia called "ghost mushrooms" but then another plant could use the light produced from the fungi so it can photosynthesis.
@@phraydedjez a mushroom producing light from wich the plant photosynthesises from wich the mushroom eats to glow from wich the plant photosynthesises from wich the mushroom.....🤔
Bacteria spends its' life in near darnkess, barely receiving any light from their geothermal vent barfing out magma, then a human comes along with a bright light and makes them feel like a nuke went off... :P
Its like the humans who care to allow their eyes to adjust to the dark vs people who don't have the patience to wait 30 seconds and think that 10,000 lumen flashlights are appropriate for personal use lol
I wrote about this phenomenon in my marine biology degree back in 2010, I'm fairly sure the first photosynthetic organisms were born at hydrothermal vents.
@@kingjames4886 If true, it's far more likely that something tectonic happened, bringing a colony of them closer to the surface, and they survived on sunlight rather than geothermal light. From there they'd be able to evolve and adapt better to their new environment.
@@kingjames4886 Evolution is never random; so no. Nothing EVER randomly evolved. If you mean to say that the naturally best fit for their environment of the geothermal bacteria survived, and then produced more genetically similarly bacteria; then sure. Genetic variation can be random; but evolution as a process is directly related to the way it's inherited features interact with their environment. "With enough energy to divide every 2.7 years" Yes, evolution happens slowly, 2.7 years is still relatively fast given that humans on average produce offspring once every 20 to 30 or so years; and even then, our genes are still changing. 1024 divisions in 30 years; because with every division, comes a second division the next time they divide. 137438953472 divisions in 100 years. Starting to sound more possible? 2.404908 x 10^111 divisions (Thats a 2 with 111 zeros after it.) in just 1000 years; assuming they STILL divide at the same rate, and have not evolved under this many variations (Which they most certainly would've, but my point is made without factoring that in.)
Currently writing my dissertation on this topic. Unfortunately, it doesn't help explain the survival of photosynthetic *eukaryotes* during this time period, but it *is* helpful when looking at prokaryotes! *Assuming the Earth WAS encased in a hard icy snowball, and the 'slushball' hypothesis is incorrect:* 1) Cyanobacteria would probably be fine in melt pools on top of the global ice sheet, at the equator, surviving on a substrate called "cryoconite". It is worth noting that many groups of cyanobacteria require oxygen-poor environments to live, so a lack of photogenic oxygen in the atmosphere wouldn't have restricted them from proliferating here. 2) Purple and green sulfur bacteria would have likely survived similarly wherever conditions were anaerobic on top of the ice. 3) Problems with this model arise when looking at eukaryotes. We know that eukaryotic photosynthesisers such as red and green algae (Archaeplastida) evolved prior to the later snowball Earth glaciations based on fossil evidence, along with other groups of eukaryotic algae including the mysterious Acritarchs. Their existence both before and after glacations means they DID survive through this period of time... but so far we haven't been able to conclusively find evidence of any refuges in which they could have done so... (it seems unlikely that they'd have done well in melt pools). As a result a lot of paleobiologists prefer the 'slushball' model, where the Earth had a lot more open water than we previously thought... Otherwise how could photosynthetic eukaryotes possibly survive this period? A hard snowball Earth would have cataclysmic consequences on eukaryotic life.
I think light bulbs don't work because they are not a constant source of light, they flicker so fast we don't see them go on and off but plants do see.
@@turtlecat0262 You can grow plants under light bulbs or LEDs, you just need the right wavelengths (anything from 5k to 10k works fine), I have an aquarium in the basement for many years without any sunlight and the plants are thriving. There are also entire farms that use artificial light to grow the crops ...
I conduct research on microbial photosynthesis and biochemistry and was wondering how I missed this research. Then I realised it was published 15 years ago from one of your links. Congrats for making a video reminding us all of this odd discovery. If you want to make a video of the weird hydrocarbon degrading bacteria we found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench at a depth of 11,000 metres then let me know.
The title is great for debunking the sunlight myth, the “photo” in photosynthesis just means light, we can also grow plants without the sun using LEDs.
I quite enjoyed this video thanks for posting. Life shows us it will always find a way. I particularly like how you guys left the ad at the end of the video.
@@Dragrath1 He was pretending, using his imagination. Unless you are thinking of a different episode and not the one where he is lying on his back flapping his arms and legs while saying photosynthesis?
Thats what he said, basically. Thermal radiation is the same reason magma glows, stovetops glow, and generally any hot item becomes visible and produces it's own light.
I read a National Geographic article today that said diatoms are more efficient in the winter if there’s snow on top of the ice, which I thought was super weird for photosynthesis. But this..... this is weirder
I'm super curious because photo means light, so how does photosynthesis occur without it? Edit: Just finished the video - ooh, how very interesting that it doesn't matter what the source of light is from; as long as there's light (in this case from geothermal volcanoes), photosynthesis can occur even in the murky depths of the sea
3:15 as expected, even tho there's no atmosphere. heat from rock movement at the core of the planet could be just enough energy to keep bacterias alive. so i'd guess alot of planets should have life forms underneath....like zergs underneath venus.
In fact, bacteriochlorophyll is not able to absorb visible light, but uses infrared light instead. And, while infrared light is emitted in principle by everything that has thermal energy (this is how infrared cameras work), the hydrothermal vents are bright in this spectrum. Of course, the sun is a much powerful source of infrared light and that is why we find green sulfur bacteria on the surface, where they multiply much faster.
I once heard that there is some type of plant or fungus that's able to use low levels of radiation as a power source. Haven't been able to find it anywhere. Anyone else ever heard of anything like this?
There's mushrooms in Chernobyl able to absorb radiation. They thought about using them in future space missions, to Mars for example. It could be used as part of the protection and/or just kept as spare "material for repairs", where you can easily just close eventual gaps with thick layers of mushrooms.
Maybe they're using infrared or near infrared light, given off from the super heated water coming out of the hydrothermal vent, for photosynthesis as well. edit: their -> they're
Yeah there are bacteria which can photosynthesize using infrared energy the catch is that the process is really inefficient due to how low energy the light is
@@electroflame6188 no need of a source dude. Just read how photosynthesis helps plants get energy. Visible light and infra are the same, only difference is the energy. Their break point has to be less, that’s it. Need a source? Read photosynthesis and think yourself if it’s possible Btw there’s google too
The black sea is relatively new so I suspect it works the other way around, they must have originated somewhere then migrated to the black sea when it was created/filled. That's even more mind boggling if that is the case.
Interestingly, we actually use this is certain circumstances. "Forced rhubarb" is rhubarb that is grown underground with very little light, just soil, water, and heat, it's much softer and much less bitter than normal rhubarb. Many plants can actually be grown in complete darkness.
That's quite different, though. The plant is basically making a last desperate attempt to reach sunlight by growing stalks really fast using stored energy reserves (presumably in the roots). They'll die if you do it for too long.
This means there could be photosynthetic life on the nightside of a tide-locked world. If it ate moonlight or planetlight and teamed up with a fungus, lichen-like, you could even have crops and "wood."
👩🔬 Dose it have to be heat emitted light or could it be sustained via bioluminescence or other sources? 🕵️♀️ Been messing with a subterranean biome the last few months that is sustained through thermal vents & bioluminescent fungi. ❤ Any information would be very helpful. Sources would be great aswell. ❤ Found sources listed in the footnotes. Ty for listing. ❤
Could be the descendants of the original pre oxygen photosynthetic bacteria, which ruled the planet when life first developed.Not that they went down fro the surface, but that they went up from there originally, and survived the great oxygen catastrophe.
I'm guessing that geothermal vents kick out a heck of a lot of infra red radiation. Those IR photons constitute an energy source for bacteria to perform electrolysis to extract hydrogen from sea water.
@@YouthAmphia you never know. The universe is a big place. A more advanced civilization could easily hide themselves from us with technology incomprehensible to us. They could also hide other alien life including us. Just some random thoughts I had while on the toilet.
@@Mazaroth There is an hypothesis that life is possible in moons/planets like Europa or Titan, but in which said life is forever trapped inside what is essentially an ice aquarium, with kms thick walls, with no chance of escape. Terrifyingly interesting thought
Can imagine a sulfur species that's intelligent. And if they see so much as a spark, let alone a small fire they'd be running for miles because they'd combust if they anywhere near it?
When you really think about it you’ll find that it’s hard to go anywhere on Earth with absolutely no light. All matter with a temperature is giving off some form of black-body radiation (light) mostly in the infrared spectrum.
I could have sworn I've seen algae moss and lichen in caves because of artificial lights...it doesnt take much for some I guess...interesting that the vents give off enough light
I guess that makes sense- photosynthesis is fundamentally converting radiation to stored chemical energy, so the radiation wouldn't have to be visible light.
What we need to find are bacteria species that thrive in the same environments as the other planets in our own solar system. For instance, Venus has sunlight, intense heat, and constant rains of sulphuric acid. This is obviously a harsh environment, but we may have some extremophile species that can survive it. Colonizing other planets with life may be a good idea. Yes, it will take millions of years before something sentient emerges but it will eventually happen due to the pressure of evolution. Granted, life on Earth hasn't done the best job of preserving the enviroment, but preserving life as a whole seems to be a unified goal that we can all agree on. Mercury might not be the best place to start, but perhaps we can find an Earthly bacteria which can survive under the soil, protected from radiation. Mars is an excellent example, as temperatures on Mars are within a range that life on Earth commonly exists in. We could certainly find many species capable of surviving, and could perhaps start to terraform the planet with lichen and bacteria species which could break down the soil into something more habitable. Grow some bacteria in a small protected environment and provide openings for the bacteria to venture out into larger spaces. These bacteria would eventually evolve into something capable of withstanding the Martian environment without the protection of it's original home. The gas giants would be next, and certainly a bigger challenge. Jupiter is abundant in liquid helium, and finding a way for life to use a noble gas is no simple task because of the stability of the atoms, but perhaps it could eventually take on a role similar to Nitrogen - about which the same could be said if we didn't already have complete ecosystems based around Nitrogen. The planet itself is going to be the primary source of energy due to heat, so that is another challenge to overcome. Photosynthesis couldn't really work well except perhaps in the cloud tops, but perhaps you can find a bacteria capable of actually using heat energy, perhaps in the form of infrared through a process similar to photosynthesis, and then maybe there is a possibility of bacteria colonization on Jupiter and Saturn. The moons of the gas giants are the next true frontier for microbe colonization. It's not only about finding life that can survive out there, but more so about finding something which already thrives in a similar environment. Thank you for coming to my ted talk, bye.
Seems like most of these abyss species are lost travelers that found a new home there. But I wonder if there are any who never saw sunlight to begin with. Like if life possibly originated in the depths, are there descendants who never left?
The geothermal light is the same type light that your body emits (radiates) from its heat. This light is in the inferred spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum and why your body shows up on inferred cameras.
@@imafreespirit5872 What? no it isn't, visibility is a result of wavelength. And molten rocks glow with visible wavelengths as well as infrared wavelengths.
@@bramvanduijn8086 it’s all electromagnetic light from heat radiation, the wavelength is just depended on the heat. If hot enough it’s visible like welded metals
This has me wondering then if there is any kind of relationship some of these photosynthesizing bacteria have with some bioluminescent species of fish or if the light from bioluminescence is enough for that photosynthesis
I haven’t watched the videos on this channel for a few months but damn bro you’ve gain some pounds during this pandemic... great video tho so keep up the great work!
I honestly don't think we should be that surprised by this finding. I wish you would've gone more into the fact that heat is light - infrared light. If these bacteria are that efficient, perhaps the infrared heat given off by the magma (and possibly other sources) is what they're using. If a planet - any planet anywhere, mind you - still has a hot core, then its almost inevitable that some of that heat (infrared light) will leak out. But infrared isn't the only color of light something like magma would give off. tavi.
"E. Coli replicates every 20 minutes under the right conditions" "Right conditions" = the dirty dishes in my sink? Can we use this bacteria to pull CO2 out of the air? Sulfur is readily available in a lot of oil wells. We can control the amount of C02 by regulating how much light the bacteria gets.
Interesting. Seems less likely to form without access to substantial light first, though, right? Making it less likely (but more likely than it was perceived to be before this discovery) that worlds without sunlight have developed life?
I wonder if extremophile bacteria could survive deep underground near the mantle and live off geothermal heat and light. Maybe they didn't fall from above but came up out of the vent
Yes. The energy in an infrared photon is lower, though. I don't know what the break-even point is for photosynthesis to be worth it, but you'd think if it were possible in the infrared spectrum you'd see it everywhere green plants couldn't grow. There are cells that can detect infrared, like in the pit viper, but they have other, more profitable and terrifying ways of getting food.
@@mattgray666 If you think of any way to get food where light does not exist, and oxygen levels are scarce, you go ahead and let those primordial soup bacteria know. As for the rest of us; IR is the light released from Geothermal vents, and being such an extreme environment, is really the only environment a life-form would require this level of sensitivity to IR; To assume that "if it were possible you'd see it everywhere" is just plain bad science; and you explain exactly why they would never evolve a need to absorb IR in low light conditions; they already are fit for their environment, pursuing a less suitable environment makes no sense. The primordial soup bacteria started there, but land plants live lavishly off of UV, and thick excess carbon dioxide, and would never evolve to grow in conditions it isn't forced to be in. There is literally next to nowhere on earth with light conditions this low, except for the deep ocean, either. Otherwise, the light you experience is non-existant, as you either have a source of IR light underground, or no light at all.
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Fascinating video, thanks for sharing. Oh, and good job on the video.
I guess absorbing would be more of a suitable expression
We should be careful what bacteria we're poking around in..
Perfect timing. I've been trying to figure out a scientific explanation for some underground flora that I created for my sci-fi novels.
Shrooms ?
@@VeganAncientDragonKnight sure, just saying that "Well those plants are not exactly plants, they are mushrooms." works too, and can probably give you a little more freedom.
Eating background radiation? ☢ That might be a good enough explanation. Or chemical energy sources
there could be some type of bioluminescence fungi as they do actually exist, we have them here in Australia called "ghost mushrooms" but then another plant could use the light produced from the fungi so it can photosynthesis.
@@phraydedjez a mushroom producing light from wich the plant photosynthesises from wich the mushroom eats to glow from wich the plant photosynthesises from wich the mushroom.....🤔
WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITHOUT SUNLIGHT!? *clicks immediately*
For real
Hot take
Too accurate
Don't photosynthesis without sunlight just synthesis???
No sunlight but earthlight.
"Photosynthesis" without light is just "synthesis". I'm 13 and this is deep.
It's not without light, it's without SUNlight.
you can grow plants in your room with LEDs
Nobody cares if you are 13 or 130..
On second thought if you are 130 you'll be the oldest living human alive...
@@aristokatclaude3413 The joke went over your head lol.
100m deep
Bacteria spends its' life in near darnkess, barely receiving any light from their geothermal vent barfing out magma, then a human comes along with a bright light and makes them feel like a nuke went off... :P
Or a starving person receiving a mysterious sandwich in delivered in the night.
@@TheCheese1988 With how much light they would have been given, a truckload of sandwiches maybe
Maybe that's what The Weeknd's Blinding Lights is about.
Its like the humans who care to allow their eyes to adjust to the dark vs people who don't have the patience to wait 30 seconds and think that 10,000 lumen flashlights are appropriate for personal use lol
Or a starving person given chocolate bar. 😭
I wrote about this phenomenon in my marine biology degree back in 2010, I'm fairly sure the first photosynthetic organisms were born at hydrothermal vents.
The first photosynthetic bacteria are theorized to have been produced by horizontal gene transfer in shallow, coastal waters.
and then they just randomly evolved into a fish and swam off? with only enough energy to divide every 2.8 years? idk...
@@kingjames4886 If true, it's far more likely that something tectonic happened, bringing a colony of them closer to the surface, and they survived on sunlight rather than geothermal light. From there they'd be able to evolve and adapt better to their new environment.
@@kingjames4886 Evolution is never random; so no. Nothing EVER randomly evolved. If you mean to say that the naturally best fit for their environment of the geothermal bacteria survived, and then produced more genetically similarly bacteria; then sure.
Genetic variation can be random; but evolution as a process is directly related to the way it's inherited features interact with their environment.
"With enough energy to divide every 2.7 years"
Yes, evolution happens slowly, 2.7 years is still relatively fast given that humans on average produce offspring once every 20 to 30 or so years; and even then, our genes are still changing.
1024 divisions in 30 years; because with every division, comes a second division the next time they divide.
137438953472 divisions in 100 years.
Starting to sound more possible?
2.404908 x 10^111 divisions (Thats a 2 with 111 zeros after it.) in just 1000 years; assuming they STILL divide at the same rate, and have not evolved under this many variations (Which they most certainly would've, but my point is made without factoring that in.)
@@D-Vinko na... it's pretty random.
🎶 Ain’t no sunshine where they grow
Only darkness everyday 🎶
Could this possibly explain how cellular life depending on photosynthesis got through snowball earth?
Yes, this is one potential explanation. Not necessarily the correct explanation, but certainly has the potential to be.
Currently writing my dissertation on this topic. Unfortunately, it doesn't help explain the survival of photosynthetic *eukaryotes* during this time period, but it *is* helpful when looking at prokaryotes!
*Assuming the Earth WAS encased in a hard icy snowball, and the 'slushball' hypothesis is incorrect:*
1) Cyanobacteria would probably be fine in melt pools on top of the global ice sheet, at the equator, surviving on a substrate called "cryoconite". It is worth noting that many groups of cyanobacteria require oxygen-poor environments to live, so a lack of photogenic oxygen in the atmosphere wouldn't have restricted them from proliferating here.
2) Purple and green sulfur bacteria would have likely survived similarly wherever conditions were anaerobic on top of the ice.
3) Problems with this model arise when looking at eukaryotes. We know that eukaryotic photosynthesisers such as red and green algae (Archaeplastida) evolved prior to the later snowball Earth glaciations based on fossil evidence, along with other groups of eukaryotic algae including the mysterious Acritarchs. Their existence both before and after glacations means they DID survive through this period of time... but so far we haven't been able to conclusively find evidence of any refuges in which they could have done so... (it seems unlikely that they'd have done well in melt pools). As a result a lot of paleobiologists prefer the 'slushball' model, where the Earth had a lot more open water than we previously thought... Otherwise how could photosynthetic eukaryotes possibly survive this period? A hard snowball Earth would have cataclysmic consequences on eukaryotic life.
@@dylaneverett4586 thanks for this, it is a very interesting and I intriguing read. 🙂
Are you presuming that all organisms had to exist UNDER the ice?
@@AaaaNinja do you expect those cells have hiking gear?
Mmmm so photosynthesis without *sunlight* but *earthlight* very interesting.
I wonder if Earth was ejected from the solar system, algae could still survive off of starlight
@@LimeyLassenwe can call it twilight earth.
Magma light
So, a geothermal vent is a tiny little nightlight for them as they snuggle together in the nice warm water. 😁
Thanks...I don't need to watch it now.
Yeah, I know. I use LEDs to grow seedling indoors.
Edit: okay that's freaking cool. Forest lit by magma anyone?
I mean, some trees have evolved potent fire resistance. Could be doable.
Could the fungus in the Nether be photosynthetic?
These are bacteria, not plants
Some farmers use LEDs to grow plants and some fungi are radiosynthetic. Nature is soo cool.
Holy crap. Just finished the video. This is EXCITING NEWS!!!!
What do you do for a living?
GSB1: I eat light from MaGmA
My first thought was light bulbs...
I was thinking about high enough entropy by having a lot of time.
I think light bulbs don't work because they are not a constant source of light, they flicker so fast we don't see them go on and off but plants do see.
@@Aphelia. I don’t think flickering would matter, and anyway, only LEDs flicker significantly
@@turtlecat0262 You can grow plants under light bulbs or LEDs, you just need the right wavelengths (anything from 5k to 10k works fine), I have an aquarium in the basement for many years without any sunlight and the plants are thriving. There are also entire farms that use artificial light to grow the crops ...
@@jacogomez1093 I know, I was saying that lightbulbs do work, we used to use sun lamps to grow seedlings
The way he said "light eating life" is so ominous, because my brain knows he means autotrophs, but my heart says "Ungoliant"
I conduct research on microbial photosynthesis and biochemistry and was wondering how I missed this research. Then I realised it was published 15 years ago from one of your links. Congrats for making a video reminding us all of this odd discovery. If you want to make a video of the weird hydrocarbon degrading bacteria we found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench at a depth of 11,000 metres then let me know.
The title is great for debunking the sunlight myth, the “photo” in photosynthesis just means light, we can also grow plants without the sun using LEDs.
I quite enjoyed this video thanks for posting. Life shows us it will always find a way.
I particularly like how you guys left the ad at the end of the video.
I believe this, I mean... spongebob can go through photosynthesis
LMAO
That always bothered me because sponges are animals they can't photosynthesize and wasn't that shows creator supposed to have been a marine biologist?
Wait what!?
@@Dragrath1 He was pretending, using his imagination. Unless you are thinking of a different episode and not the one where he is lying on his back flapping his arms and legs while saying photosynthesis?
@@Dragrath1 Well, some sponges have symbiotic algae, just like corals.
Green Sulphur Bacteria, GSB-1... well at least it's easy to remember
❤️The channel, good mix of educational, informational and entertainment 😊
SciShow When your title is more interesting than ClickBait and its a true reflection of the content.
Next on SciShow: Come to find out, mitochondria really isn't the powerhouse of the cell
Mistletoe can't make ATP, actually.
Yes, there is a bacteria which doesn't have a mitochondria
I've never thought this can be possible! Great!
This blew my mind
Me too, I learned something new today!!!
It's a pleasure to find out I'm not the only one expanding horizontally 😂
I feel like I was clickbaited without the clickbait. Strange, I know.
Excellent video.
Those movies about worlds at the centre of the earth just got more interesting
I was thinking either from magma glow or maybe from light given off by luminescence from any other things down there
Thats what he said, basically.
Thermal radiation is the same reason magma glows, stovetops glow, and generally any hot item becomes visible and produces it's own light.
@@D-Vinko yeah, so I guess I got it right lol
I read a National Geographic article today that said diatoms are more efficient in the winter if there’s snow on top of the ice, which I thought was super weird for photosynthesis. But this..... this is weirder
Tldr: they learned hamon and produce their own sunlight energy to photosynthesis
Thats frikking amazing
*laughs in Sun Shroom*
I'm super curious because photo means light, so how does photosynthesis occur without it?
Edit: Just finished the video - ooh, how very interesting that it doesn't matter what the source of light is from; as long as there's light (in this case from geothermal volcanoes), photosynthesis can occur even in the murky depths of the sea
Sunlight is not the only source of light?
Man that was going to be my very smart point lol. I think they just missed named the video
It was a bit of a tricky, click bait, title that fooled me too. "Sun light" doesn't exclude other sources of light.
The title say "without sunlight", not "without light" :p
Infrared
Plot twist, plot twist and a THIRD plot twist within the span of less than 5 minutes!
"Life......Life , uh finds a way".
Jeff Goldbloom
Brad Bellflower
3:15 as expected, even tho there's no atmosphere. heat from rock movement at the core of the planet could be just enough energy to keep bacterias alive. so i'd guess alot of planets should have life forms underneath....like zergs underneath venus.
Finally an explanation for the Trees of the Minecraft Nether update
Amazing video and super informative!
So whoever coined the term photosynthesis could not have been any more right about how it actually happens as it wasn't limited to the Sun.
Neat.
In fact, bacteriochlorophyll is not able to absorb visible light, but uses infrared light instead. And, while infrared light is emitted in principle by everything that has thermal energy (this is how infrared cameras work), the hydrothermal vents are bright in this spectrum. Of course, the sun is a much powerful source of infrared light and that is why we find green sulfur bacteria on the surface, where they multiply much faster.
I once heard that there is some type of plant or fungus that's able to use low levels of radiation as a power source. Haven't been able to find it anywhere. Anyone else ever heard of anything like this?
@@ExsoLam what about those bacteria found in Chernobyl?
@@Z3DT is that low level or high level? I mean is nuke radiation above visible or below? Sorry if it’s stupid
There's mushrooms in Chernobyl able to absorb radiation. They thought about using them in future space missions, to Mars for example. It could be used as part of the protection and/or just kept as spare "material for repairs", where you can easily just close eventual gaps with thick layers of mushrooms.
@@ExsoLam Except all of that evidence of naturally Radiation absorbing fungi that is all over the internet if you just google the word you just said.
I like this a lot
To seek out new life, and new illuminations
Maybe they're using infrared or near infrared light, given off from the super heated water coming out of the hydrothermal vent, for photosynthesis as well.
edit: their -> they're
Yeah there are bacteria which can photosynthesize using infrared energy the catch is that the process is really inefficient due to how low energy the light is
@@Dragrath1 source on that?
@@electroflame6188 no need of a source dude. Just read how photosynthesis helps plants get energy. Visible light and infra are the same, only difference is the energy. Their break point has to be less, that’s it.
Need a source? Read photosynthesis and think yourself if it’s possible
Btw there’s google too
@@niranjanr8075 So you _don't_ want to read more on the topic?
GSB1, Green Sulfur Bacteria 1
*sigh*
Really showing some originality there
The most fascinating species to find would be a photosynthetic organism that lives in a cave, feeding off bio-luminescent fungi.... that'd be epic.
Just put some torches or glowstone and u guys alright
make sure it has more than 10 light level 😤🥵👌
it is underwater so maybe just glowstone
The black sea is relatively new so I suspect it works the other way around, they must have originated somewhere then migrated to the black sea when it was created/filled. That's even more mind boggling if that is the case.
Interestingly, we actually use this is certain circumstances. "Forced rhubarb" is rhubarb that is grown underground with very little light, just soil, water, and heat, it's much softer and much less bitter than normal rhubarb. Many plants can actually be grown in complete darkness.
That's quite different, though. The plant is basically making a last desperate attempt to reach sunlight by growing stalks really fast using stored energy reserves (presumably in the roots). They'll die if you do it for too long.
This means there could be photosynthetic life on the nightside of a tide-locked world. If it ate moonlight or planetlight and teamed up with a fungus, lichen-like, you could even have crops and "wood."
Hank has never played Minecraft obviously. Just put torches around your wheat and it will grow underground.
👩🔬 Dose it have to be heat emitted light or could it be sustained via bioluminescence or other sources? 🕵️♀️ Been messing with a subterranean biome the last few months that is sustained through thermal vents & bioluminescent fungi. ❤ Any information would be very helpful. Sources would be great aswell. ❤
Found sources listed in the footnotes. Ty for listing. ❤
Amazing
What a cool story, living of the glow of Magma deep at the Sea floor.. cool
Could be the descendants of the original pre oxygen photosynthetic bacteria, which ruled the planet when life first developed.Not that they went down fro the surface, but that they went up from there originally, and survived the great oxygen catastrophe.
Fascinating discovery ! 🌱🌿☘️🍀🌲🌳🌴
So basically what you are saying is that the ocean floor is lit. Cool, got it.👍🏾
I'm guessing that geothermal vents kick out a heck of a lot of infra red radiation. Those IR photons constitute an energy source for bacteria to perform electrolysis to extract hydrogen from sea water.
Interesting
Wonder if this happens in other planets. And if it does how would we know?
we havent even found any signature of extraterrestrial life at all
so first focus on that
@@YouthAmphia you never know. The universe is a big place. A more advanced civilization could easily hide themselves from us with technology incomprehensible to us. They could also hide other alien life including us. Just some random thoughts I had while on the toilet.
There could be some in Europa, one of the Jupiters moons, then again it would be beneath the ice shell and in the liquid ocean under it.
@@Mazaroth There is an hypothesis that life is possible in moons/planets like Europa or Titan, but in which said life is forever trapped inside what is essentially an ice aquarium, with kms thick walls, with no chance of escape. Terrifyingly interesting thought
When we come back through the airlock and there is green goo on the boots, we will know.
Now you can eat not-sunlight
I wonder if this information on how efficiently they capture light could be an area of interest in solar power design and research.
G.reen S.ulfur B.acteria that has never been seen before...
GSB1...
Theese sience man are creative
We should look into these for better ways of solar collection, possibly gmos?
I was ready to be told a chem lesson where my photosynthesis formulas would be changed 😂 love this video tho
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp402413d
chlorophyll F, adjust your chemistry as needed.
Can imagine a sulfur species that's intelligent. And if they see so much as a spark, let alone a small fire they'd be running for miles because they'd combust if they anywhere near it?
Awesome
mind blown
That's neat.
When you really think about it you’ll find that it’s hard to go anywhere on Earth with absolutely no light. All matter with a temperature is giving off some form of black-body radiation (light) mostly in the infrared spectrum.
When I grow up, I want photosynthesize, too.
Take immunosuppressants and inject algea under your skin!
I could have sworn I've seen algae moss and lichen in caves because of artificial lights...it doesnt take much for some I guess...interesting that the vents give off enough light
I guess that makes sense- photosynthesis is fundamentally converting radiation to stored chemical energy, so the radiation wouldn't have to be visible light.
I think our galaxy is like a garden with nothing in it
Lets plant!
I wonder if there's enough light reaching rogue planets for something like this...
This is why in apartments where there isn't a single ray of sun plants manage to survive :D I wasn't crazy after all haha
What we need to find are bacteria species that thrive in the same environments as the other planets in our own solar system. For instance, Venus has sunlight, intense heat, and constant rains of sulphuric acid. This is obviously a harsh environment, but we may have some extremophile species that can survive it. Colonizing other planets with life may be a good idea. Yes, it will take millions of years before something sentient emerges but it will eventually happen due to the pressure of evolution.
Granted, life on Earth hasn't done the best job of preserving the enviroment, but preserving life as a whole seems to be a unified goal that we can all agree on. Mercury might not be the best place to start, but perhaps we can find an Earthly bacteria which can survive under the soil, protected from radiation. Mars is an excellent example, as temperatures on Mars are within a range that life on Earth commonly exists in. We could certainly find many species capable of surviving, and could perhaps start to terraform the planet with lichen and bacteria species which could break down the soil into something more habitable. Grow some bacteria in a small protected environment and provide openings for the bacteria to venture out into larger spaces. These bacteria would eventually evolve into something capable of withstanding the Martian environment without the protection of it's original home.
The gas giants would be next, and certainly a bigger challenge. Jupiter is abundant in liquid helium, and finding a way for life to use a noble gas is no simple task because of the stability of the atoms, but perhaps it could eventually take on a role similar to Nitrogen - about which the same could be said if we didn't already have complete ecosystems based around Nitrogen. The planet itself is going to be the primary source of energy due to heat, so that is another challenge to overcome. Photosynthesis couldn't really work well except perhaps in the cloud tops, but perhaps you can find a bacteria capable of actually using heat energy, perhaps in the form of infrared through a process similar to photosynthesis, and then maybe there is a possibility of bacteria colonization on Jupiter and Saturn.
The moons of the gas giants are the next true frontier for microbe colonization. It's not only about finding life that can survive out there, but more so about finding something which already thrives in a similar environment.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, bye.
Yes, that's what plants inside shopping malls do.
How photosynthesis takes place in the plants of Norway having nights too long?
Seems like most of these abyss species are lost travelers that found a new home there. But I wonder if there are any who never saw sunlight to begin with. Like if life possibly originated in the depths, are there descendants who never left?
Thats... I wont even comment, follow that rabbit hole and see how deep it goes. Google it, seriously I'm not joking.
The geothermal light is the same type light that your body emits (radiates) from its heat. This light is in the inferred spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum and why your body shows up on inferred cameras.
I thought they meant the visible light that molten rock glows with.
@@bramvanduijn8086 it’s all the same light, just not all is visible to the human eye
@@imafreespirit5872 What? no it isn't, visibility is a result of wavelength. And molten rocks glow with visible wavelengths as well as infrared wavelengths.
@@bramvanduijn8086 it’s all electromagnetic light from heat radiation, the wavelength is just depended on the heat. If hot enough it’s visible like welded metals
This has me wondering then if there is any kind of relationship some of these photosynthesizing bacteria have with some bioluminescent species of fish or if the light from bioluminescence is enough for that photosynthesis
I haven’t watched the videos on this channel for a few months but damn bro you’ve gain some pounds during this pandemic... great video tho so keep up the great work!
He doesn't look that fat
Lol, somebody is a judgemental POS
I honestly don't think we should be that surprised by this finding. I wish you would've gone more into the fact that heat is light - infrared light. If these bacteria are that efficient, perhaps the infrared heat given off by the magma (and possibly other sources) is what they're using. If a planet - any planet anywhere, mind you - still has a hot core, then its almost inevitable that some of that heat (infrared light) will leak out. But infrared isn't the only color of light something like magma would give off. tavi.
Have you ever been in a cave or catacomb, and seen the moss that grows around the flood lamps they often use down there?
The heat is a form of light.
wow great
This helped me in bio alot
"E. Coli replicates every 20 minutes under the right conditions" "Right conditions" = the dirty dishes in my sink?
Can we use this bacteria to pull CO2 out of the air? Sulfur is readily available in a lot of oil wells. We can control the amount of C02 by regulating how much light the bacteria gets.
I really like and appreciate science but it took me a very long time to grasp the Citric acid cycle in chemistry.
The bidentate coordination of that magnesium ion in the bacteriochlorophyll molecule hurt a little bit, guys.
Interesting. Seems less likely to form without access to substantial light first, though, right? Making it less likely (but more likely than it was perceived to be before this discovery) that worlds without sunlight have developed life?
how about black body radiation? could the photons emitted from that be used in "total darkness"?
It's likely that the energy levels contained within BBR wouldn't be sufficient to cause the electrons in the plant to jump to their excited state.
Trying to say that there's no light down there is like saying that there isn't any heat down there. The 'photo' part of photosynthesis is fictional.
They used hydrothermal light, they use light even though no sunlight.
What about the miticlorians using the light side of the force?
I wonder if extremophile bacteria could survive deep underground near the mantle and live off geothermal heat and light. Maybe they didn't fall from above but came up out of the vent
Can this knowledge help with solar power and did land plants learn photosynthesis from bacteria.
Photosynthesis via infrared radiation?! That's bonkers! I wonder if there is anything that photosynthesizes ultraviolet radiation...
wouldn't there be light in the infra-red range around a geothermal vent?
Yes. The energy in an infrared photon is lower, though. I don't know what the break-even point is for photosynthesis to be worth it, but you'd think if it were possible in the infrared spectrum you'd see it everywhere green plants couldn't grow. There are cells that can detect infrared, like in the pit viper, but they have other, more profitable and terrifying ways of getting food.
@@mattgray666 If you think of any way to get food where light does not exist, and oxygen levels are scarce, you go ahead and let those primordial soup bacteria know.
As for the rest of us; IR is the light released from Geothermal vents, and being such an extreme environment, is really the only environment a life-form would require this level of sensitivity to IR;
To assume that "if it were possible you'd see it everywhere" is just plain bad science; and you explain exactly why they would never evolve a need to absorb IR in low light conditions; they already are fit for their environment, pursuing a less suitable environment makes no sense. The primordial soup bacteria started there, but land plants live lavishly off of UV, and thick excess carbon dioxide, and would never evolve to grow in conditions it isn't forced to be in. There is literally next to nowhere on earth with light conditions this low, except for the deep ocean, either. Otherwise, the light you experience is non-existant, as you either have a source of IR light underground, or no light at all.