Page 20. MAINE COASTAL NEWS May 2014 NEWS FROM WOODS HOLE INSTITUTE Continued from Page 8. full-ocean water depths. The team will use the deep-submer-
gence vehicle, Nereus, which can remain deployed for up to 12 hours, to collect both biological and sediment samples. Nereus will stream imagery from its video camera to the ship via a fi ber-optic fi lament about the width of human hair. This state of the art vehicle, developed by a team of engineers at WHOI, is the result of a combination of some of the greatest advances in technology and science, and has already dove success- fully to the deepest part of the ocean—Chal- lenger Deep in the Mariana Trench—on its fi rst mission in May 2009.
Once thought to be devoid of life, trenches may actually be home to many unique species. For one reason, there is growing evidence that food is plentiful there. While it is still unclear why, organic material in the ocean may be transported by currents and deposited into the trenches. In addition to looking at how food sup- ply varies at different depths, the research team will be investigating the role that en- ergy demand and metabolic rates of trench organisms play in community structure and how these biological systems differ from their shallow water relatives.
Study Tests Theory that Life Originated at Deep Sea Vents
One of the greatest mysteries facing humans is how life originated on Earth. Scientists have determined approximately when life began (roughly 3.8 billion years ago), but there is still intense debate about exactly how life began. One possibility has grown in popularity in the last two decades - that simple metabolic reactions emerged
near ancient seafl oor hot springs, enabling the leap from a non-living to a living world. Recent research by geochemists Eo- ghan Reeves, Jeff Seewald, and Jill Mc- Dermott at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is the fi rst to test a funda- mental assumption of this ‘metabolism fi rst’ hypothesis, and fi nds that it may not have been as easy as previously assumed. Instead, their fi ndings could provide a focus for the search for life on other planets. The work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
In 1977, scientists discovered bio- logical communities unexpectedly living around seafl oor hydrothermal vents, far from sunlight and thriving on a chemical soup rich in hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and sulfur, spewing from the geysers. Inspired by these fi ndings, scientists later proposed that hydrothermal vents provided an ideal environment with all the ingredients needed for microbial life to emerge on early Earth. A central fi gure in this hypothesis is a simple sulfur-containing carbon compound called “methanethiol” - a supposed geologic pre- cursor of the Acetyl-CoA enzyme present in many organisms, including humans. Sci- entists suspected methanethiol could have been the “starter dough” from which all life emerged.
The question Reeves and his colleagues set out to test was whether methanethiol—a critical precursor of life – could form at modern day vent sites by purely chemical means without the involvement of life. Could methanethiol be the bridge between a chemical, non-living world and the fi rst microbial life on the planet?
Carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sulfi de are the common ingredients present in hy- drothermal black smoker fl uids.
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The theory was appealing, and solved many of the basic problems with existing ideas that life may have been carried to Earth on a comet or asteroid; or that genetic material emerged fi rst – the “RNA World” hypothesis.
And when they did get out there, the scientists were surprised by what they found. To directly measure methanethiol, the researchers went to hydrothermal vent sites where the chemistry predicted they would fi nd abundant methanethiol, and others where very little was predicted to form. In total, they measured the distribution of methanethiol in 38 hydrothermal fl uids from multiple differing geologic environments including systems along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Guaymas Basin, the East Pacifi c Rise, and the Mid-Cayman Rise over a pe- riod between 2008 and 2012.
Instead of an abundance of methan- ethiol, the data they collected in the hydro- gen-rich environments showed very little was present. Surprisingly, in the low-hy- drogen environments, where much less should form, the research actually found more methanethiol than they had predict- ed, contradicting the original idea of how methanethiol forms. Overall, this means that jump-starting proto-metabolic reactions in hydrogen-rich early Earth hydrothermal systems through carbon-sulfur chemistry would likely have been much harder than many had assumed. Critically, the researchers found an abundance of methanethiol being formed in low temperature fl uids (below about 200°C), where hot black smoker fl uid mixes with colder sea water beneath the seafl oor. The presence of other telltale markers in these fl uids, such as ammonia – a byproduct of biomass breakdown – strongly suggests these fl uids are ‘cooking’ existing microbial organic matter. The breakdown of existing sub-seafl oor life when conditions get too hot may therefore be responsible for producing large amounts of methanethiol. The researchers believe this new under- standing could change how we think about searching for life on other planets. As for the search for the origins of life, Reeves agrees that hydrothermal vents are still a very favorable place for life to emerge, but, he says, “maybe methanethiol just wasn’t a good starter dough. The hydro- thermal environment is still a perfect place to support early life, and the question of how it all started is still open.”
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Newly Upgraded Alvin Sub Passes Scien- tifi c Sea Trials
Scientists gave the rebuilt Alvin sub- marine two thumbs up after fi eld-testing the nation’s only human-occupied deep-sea research vehicle for the fi rst time after a ma- jor $42-million overhaul that dramatically
upgraded the sub’s capabilities. The Alvin upgrade was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and augmented with some private support from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). In Jan. 2014, its upgrade was complete and the sub was certifi ed by the U.S. Navy to return to operations. More than three years after its last re- search mission, the U.S. Navy-owned Alvin returned to the scene of its last scientifi c dives in the Gulf of Mexico, as a substan- tially different vehicle. In a series of dives, pilots and scientists tested the new automatic command-and control functions, the sub’s new battery capacity, and high-defi nition cameras, and evaluated its maneuverability with the new forward lateral thruster. Pilots and scientists also tested the sub’s manipulator arms, whose shoulder joints were given more fl exibility, extending their forward reach from 2.3 to 3 meters (93 to 118 inches) and expanding their coverage area from about 100 to 140 degrees. Sci- entists said that operations to grab, scoop, and core sediment and biological samples were enhanced by the two additional for- ward-looking viewports. The new sub has fi ve, rather than three, viewports; the three forward-facing viewports are now 7, rather than 5, inches in diameter and have overlap- ping fi elds of view, assisting communication between scientists and the pilot operating the sub’s manipulators.
One of the greatest milestones during
the Alvin upgrade project was the forging of a new titanium personnel sphere. The new sphere has a 6.5-foot diameter compared with 6 feet in the old Alvin, increasing its volume by 18 percent.
The expedition assessed the research
vessel Atlantis’s system to launch and recover the new, heavier Alvin, including the ship’s A-frame, the gargantuan lift that hoists the sub off the deck and moves it off the stern, which was also signifi cantly overhauled.
The expedition was designed to uncov- er technical problems, and, not unexpected- ly, it did. As the research team examined the fl ood of video recordings from Alvin’s fi rst three dives, they discovered gaps in the data stream. They conducted an intensive effort to troubleshoot the problem. B y the end of the cruise, they believe they identifi ed the cause of the problem and are working on both temporary and long-term ways to fi x it. On what proved to be the expedition’s
fi nal dive March 23, a mechanical device failed in the sub’s carbon dioxide scrubber, which helps purify air in the sphere, and the mission was aborted. With only one work- ing scrubber, but no spare, the sub could not continue diving before returning to port Wednesday in Gulfport, MS.
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