NM Holds the Key to All Life
Mike Smith
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Oh, New Mexico, you inscrutable paradox, you salty dog. What mysteries you hide beneath your sere and rugged exterior! We’ve puzzled over space rocks. We’ve been shocked by Satan’s skull. We’ve heard about behemoth catfish. But your riddles never abate, do they?
Now, locked deep within your salty crystals found 650 meters below the surface of the Saldado Formation near Carlsbad, scientists have discovered physical evidence of life on earth that’s about 200 million years older than any previous discovery.
I admire your restraint, New Mexico. You’re not showing off. The oldest evidence of biological material we previously had came from Tyrannosaurus Rex protein samples and was dated at 68 million years. How can your rich vein of halite, more commonly known as rock salt, compare to dinosaur DNA? Yet watery pockets within the unimposing halite have been shown to contain 253-million-year-old microscopic treasures in the form of everyday cellulose. In other words, tiny spaces in the rock salt retain bits of organic matter that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Cellulose is one of the most abundant biological substances on earth. Plants, algae, and bacteria may generate as much as 100 gigatons of the stuff each year. Slightly altered, in the form of chitin, it’s what insects use for their exoskeletons. As Science Daily explains,
Prehistoric forms of cellulose were made by cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae and bacteria still found in almost every conceivable habitat on land and in the oceans, which is known to have been present on Earth 2.8 billion years ago.
Using transmission electron microscopy, scientists were able to examine largely intact cellulose microfibers found inside halite at the US Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) at the Saldado Formation, where radioactive waste left over from nuclear weapons research and production is stored.
You’re amazing, New Mexico! Not only have you been cradling this secret physical evidence of biological life for over 250 million years, a discovery that displays in a geological timeframe the evolutionary history of our earth, but you’re now providing what may be our best bet for uncovering life elsewhere in our solar system.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Jack Griffith, says,
So in looking for evidence of life on Mars, for bacteria or higher plants that existed on Mars or other planets in the solar system, then looking for cellulose in salt deposits is probably a very good way to go. Cellulose appears to be highly stable and more resistant to ionizing radiation than DNA. And if it is relatively resistant to harsh conditions such as those found in space, it may provide the ideal 'paper trail' in the search for life on other planets.
With the March 2008 discovery of salt deposits pointing to places where water was once abundant on Mars, you’ve shown us what to look for. You've provided us with a beacon for life in the universe. Thank you, New Mexico, thank you. You truly are an enchanting land.
—Lisa Barrow
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Reader Comments (2)
But New Mexico is probably blushing. ;-)
Unnecessarily modest, wallflower of a state that she is, this is her only "genuine" flaw.
She is yet to realize her own greatness.
Here's hoping that one day, your skill as a writer will be noticed by many.