Re: Microbe Fossils-Mars

Philip Witham (pwitham@cts.com)
Sun, 24 Aug 1997 12:57:14 -0700 (PDT)


On Sat, 23 Aug 1997 Enigl@aol.com wrote:
> Spores *do* have a long survival. Some one on the list found data that
> spores survived with out count reduction in viability on the Moon. The
> ...various good info... (snip)(snip)

Thanks for answering my question. This is facinating, I continue to be
impressed that "simpler" forms of life are so tenaciously adaptable.

Which (if any) of the creatures you know of can survive long term in a
very high vacuum (say, under 10^-9 torr) at 3 degrees kelvin? Presumably,
most all water would be gone. Of course, things might hide inside a rock
for much longer, with the pressure being much higher.

Do you know of any books or papers specifically discussing the survival of
organisms over extremely long time-spans?

- PW