> Very low permeability (1.1–2.0 × 10−17 m2 for IODP Site U1365 4H-3 [26.6 meters below seafloor (mbsf)] and 8.9 × 10−18 m2 for IODP Site U1370 [37.5 mbsf], respectively), very low estimated pore size of the abyssal clay (~0.02 microns, calculated using above permeability data according to the equation shown in Tanikawa et al.), and thick porcellanite layers above the oldest sampled horizons appear to preclude cell migration into the sampled sediment. Consequently, the sampled communities have likely been trapped in the sediment since shortly after its deposition.
> appear to preclude cell migration into the sampled sediment
appear to preclude = we don't know how it could
100 million years is a long, long time for bacteria to find a route past a barrier and migrate sideways through a more hospitable substrate.
They found oxygen and decided that meant there was no oxidation (eating) going on. I wonder if they have any specialists on the team who would know specifically about permeability (the quoted person is a 'microbial ecologist', which sounds like it would know quite a few things about organic and inorganic chemistry, I don't expect they'd be an expert on geologic timescales. The way an architect in theory knows about physics of building materials but still gets into scraps with the general contractor.
It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
I'm not the expert they need. I'm an expert in debugging. The tricky bit with debugging is, X can't happen, but X did happen. Magic did not cause this. Unless you have 1000 machines, cosmic rays probably didn't cause it either.
"X can't happen" is actually "All of my assumptions say 'X cannot happen'". Therefore, one of your assumptions is wrong. Don't shrug and put it off on someone else. start testing your assumptions.
In this case there's probably a PhD in testing that assumption. My question is, is that a future PhD or an existing one?
I should also say that I'm invested in the idea that we could seed benthic microbes into the universe and that some day that would let us terraform Mars and Venus. That will not happen with magic thinking.
I knew someone who believed in the paranormal. She got hooked in with a group of ghost hunters in Seattle who were trying to apply science to ghost hunting (similar to the Portland group that got that reality show. Apparently they sat around making fun of those people as a sub-hobby.) They didn't want to be made fools of by declaring something was paranormal that ended up being loose wiring. So they had a very long checklist of things they would look at. Often the house owner was told to call an electrician (loose wires in a wiring panel make you feel weird when standing on the other side of the wall) or occasionally an HVAC specialist.
Practically speaking, they ended up being a ghost debunking group, hoping that one day they'd find something truly inexplicable. Discussions like this tend to remind me of that group.
Have you seen Room 1408? Cusack plays a cynical ghost hunter who finds a deeply complex haunting. I won’t spoil the ending, but at a moment where inexplicable things are piling up, he assumes instead that he’s been given a hallucinogen in a gift.
Decent movie, total waste of Samuel L Jackson though. I think he got paid to sit around the set snacking on the buffet.
> Very low permeability (1.1–2.0 × 10−17 m2 for IODP Site U1365 4H-3 [26.6 meters below seafloor (mbsf)] and 8.9 × 10−18 m2 for IODP Site U1370 [37.5 mbsf], respectively), very low estimated pore size of the abyssal clay (~0.02 microns, calculated using above permeability data according to the equation shown in Tanikawa et al.), and thick porcellanite layers above the oldest sampled horizons appear to preclude cell migration into the sampled sediment. Consequently, the sampled communities have likely been trapped in the sediment since shortly after its deposition.