Christner

Christner is confident this is correct because he has observed microbes that have been frozen in ice for many thousands of years start wiggling when warmed up a bit in the lab.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

But Christner knows better; years of work have shown that they contain microorganisms barely eking out a living, yet apparently metabolizing, using energy, maintaining their DNA and splitting—all at a, well, glacial pace.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

Christner has made five trips to Antarctica between 2000 and 2009 searching for life in ice.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

Christner was most interested in the second sample, the one with the thin layers of sediment.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

Working with Mark Skidmore of Montana State University, Christner and his team, the Interdisciplinary Collaboration Investigating Biological Activity in a Subglacial Environment ICIBASE, are finding recently unimaginable activity at the icy boundaries of life.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

In other words, Christner and a handful of others are working to prove the hypothesis that Antarctic ice, as well as glacial ice elsewhere, is not lifeless and unchanging but rather an ecosystem no different from a forest or stream.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

Russian and American researchers, including Christner, have identified signs of life almost three miles below the surface in ice that originates from liquid Lake Vostok, the largest of the recently discovered subglacial lakes on the continent.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

“Yes, I wanted to study thermophiles for my doctoral thesis,” Christner said, and laughed.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

The chapter on extremophiles was anchored in the pioneering work of scientists such as John Baross of the University of Washington and John Priscu of Montana State University, but relied heavily on time spent with Tullis Onstott, Brent Christner of Louisiana State University, Gaetan Borgonie of the University of Ghent, and Lisa Pratt of Indiana University.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

Christner had an answer, one based on measurements of the rate at which microbes, living in ice at 5 degrees Fahrenheit, can build the genes needed to successfully divide and create a new organism.

First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011