The Deep Hot Biosphere
This book sets forth a set of truly controversial and astonishing theories: First, it proposes that below the surface of the earth is a biosphere of greater mass and volume than the biosphere the total sum of living things on our planet's continents and in its oceans. Second, it proposes that the inhabitants of this subterranean biosphere are not plants or animals as we know them, but heat-loving bacteria that survive on a diet consisting solely of hydrocarbons that is, natural gas and petroleum. And third and perhaps most heretically, the book advances the stunning idea that most hydrocarbons on Earth are not the byproduct of biological debris ("fossil fuels"), but were a common constituent of the materials from which the earth itself was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The implications are astounding. The theory proposes answers to often-asked questions: Is the deep hot biosphere where life originated, and do Mars and other seemingly barren planets contain deep biospheres? Even more provocatively, is it possible that there is an enormous store of hydrocarbons upwelling from deep within the earth that can provide us with abundant supplies of gas and petroleum? However far-fetched these ideas seem, they are supported by a growing body of evidence, and by the indisputable stature and seriousness Gold brings to any scientific debate.
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- Tommy Gold looks increasingly prescient. Refer to his book, “The Deep Hot Biosphere”, written nearly twenty years ago. (And check him out on Wikipedia - he also first stated how the ear hears different frequencies and that pulsars are spinning neutron stars.)
These organisms are close to the root of the tree. Photosynthesis came much later.
- A good book on bacteria living deep underground is 'The Deep Hot Biosphere' by Thomas Gold: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosph...
It's somewhat controversial, but it's a good read.
- Reminds me of Thomas Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere" theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#%22Deep_Hot_Biosph...
- In his book "The Deep Hot Biosphere" Thomas Gold argued that life probably originated deep underground. Gold is a pretty controversial figure, but this hypothesis makes sense for a number of reasons: the underground environment is a lot more stable than the surface, and the chemistry to extract energy from the chemicals in that environment is a lot simpler than the chemistry to extract energy from sunlight. So it makes sense that underground chemosynthesis would emerge before photosynthesis.
- "A decade ago, we had no idea that the rocks beneath our feet could be so vastly inhabited."
Over 30 years ago Thomas Gold published "The Deep Hot Biosphere". A review in PNAS is here [1].
- There is such a theory, Thomas Gold thought that hydrocarbons came from underneath and then was processed by the metabolism of bacteria living far beneath the surface. He later wrote a book about the theory called "The Deep Hot Biosphere". He turned out to have been right about deep life at least.
Here is a retrospective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5502609/
