Re: how about a microorganism as upper atmosphere coolant for Earth's 1st AirConditioner; Can bacteria choke off life from Earth???

From: MMu (brilhasti_at_gmx.net)
Date: 01/10/05 

Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 16:09:13 +0100

I have also heard of micro organisms that can be found in the upper
atmosphere..*

(although those things are really tough bastards if you think of it.. uv
light from the sun, quite cold, not much to harvest..)

The idea that global warming could cause those to duplicate faster isn't all
to unrealistic actually.. although I doubt that they would actually multiply
in such a fashion that they could significantly block out sunlight.

*) I found the article on pubmed:

Microorganisms of the upper layer of the atmosphere and the protective role
of their cell pigments.
Imshenetsky AA, Lysenko SV, Lach SP.

Journal: Life Sci Space Res. 1979;17:105-10.
Institute of Microbiology, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR.

Of the six species of microorganisms isolated from the mesosphere, five
contained pigments and were more resistant to UV radiation compared with
their pigment-free mutants. The black pigment isolated from the conidia of
Aspergillus niger considerably increased the UV resistance of the
unpigmented mutant conidia of Penicillium notatum, the spore Circinella
muscae and the vegetative cells of Micrococcus albus. From the data it is
possible to conclude that in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere the
predominant proportion of pigmented microorganisms is the consequence of
natural selection by UV radiation.