infocus #12 December 2008 The high cold biosphere

Microscope studies on the microbiology of the stratosphere

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.39

Claims that bacteria exist in the stratosphere were made during the early 1930s and confirmed by Russian workers in the 1970s. More recently, workers in Cardiff, Sheffield and India have collaborated in sending balloons to the stratosphere to determine if a high cold biosphere exists at heights up to 41km. Using scanning electron microscopes, clumps of bacteria-like forms have been found at this height, either alone or associated with dust particles.

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Author

Milton Wainwright

Microbiologist / Honorary Professor and Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield and Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK

Professor Milton Wainwright is a microbiologist in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield and is Honorary Professor and Fellow of the Centre for Astrobiology at Buckingham University. He has had a long-standing research collaboration with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, the Director of the above mentioned Centre who, with Sir Fred Hoyle, developed the modern theory of cometary panspermia.