Post by tt on Mar 23, 2006 20:31:48 GMT -5
Lexington Herald Leader - Lexington,KY,USA
... within the next 50 years. National Geographic funded one of the first field surveys to focus on ice-worm ecosystems. "They're kind of ...
I had this sent to me but when i went it never mentioned National Geographic anyway here it is
www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/living/science/14165072.htm
Enigma of the ice wormTiny creature slow to give up its secrets
By Sandi Doughton
THE SEATTLE TIMES
Ben Lee is stalking a creature most people think is a myth, if they've heard of it at all.
"I don't know what we'll see," he said, loading an ice ax and snow shovel into his backpack. "Nobody knows what ice worms do in winter."
Lee, a senior at the University of Puget Sound, has come to Mount Rainier to find out.
Thriving in conditions that would turn most living things to Popsicles, these inch-long earthworm cousins inhabit glaciers and snowfields in the coastal ranges of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. They move through seemingly solid ice with ease and are at their liveliest near the freezing point of water. Warm them up slightly and they dissolve into goo.
Their life cycle remains a mystery.
But ice worms are beginning to yield their secrets to a few hardy scientists who see broad applications from understanding one of the planet's oddest inhabitants.
NASA anted up $200,000 last year to explore the worms' cold tolerance and what it might say about the possibility of life on Jupiter's icy moons and other planets. That work could also improve cold storage of organs and tissues for transplantation.
As glaciers shrink in the face of global warming, interest is growing in ice worms and other animals whose habitat could melt away within the next 50 years. National Geographic funded one of the first field surveys to focus on ice-worm ecosystems.
"They're kind of hot right now," Lee said as he and roommate Dave Eiriksson strapped on their gear and headed up the slopes above Paradise.
The rare sunny day was perfect for "worming," as the 23-year-old Lee calls it.
The men followed a snowshoe trail that wound steeply through stands of subalpine fir half-buried in pillowy drifts. More than 600 inches of snow fall here in an average year, and it's hard to imagine anything without fur could survive.
"People don't believe me when I tell them I'm studying ice worms," Lee said. "The words just don't go together."
A cold-loving Minnesotan, Lee picked ice worms for his undergraduate biology thesis because they're weird, haven't been studied much and provide an excuse to get out in the mountains. He spent last summer gathering specimens from glaciers across the Olympic range.
In warmer weather, the black worms are hard to miss. As the sun sets, they swarm to the surface to feed on algae, pollen and other digestible debris.
"In some places, they're so thick you can't step without killing tons of them," Lee said.
Before dawn, the worms retreat back into the ice. Their species name, solifugus, means sun-avoiding.
In winter, when algae can't grow and snow blankets the surface, Lee suspects the worms simply stay deep inside the ice, perhaps in a dormant state.
His plan is to root them out.
"A hundred years of research adds up to about this much paper," Lee said, holding his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart.
Searching the Internet, he connected with biologists Dan Shain and Paula Hartzell, who between them probably account for the bulk of the world's ice-worm expertise.
In summer, Hartzell said, he has found worms in blue ice more than six feet below the surface. Lee peered into a crevasse in Olympic National Park and spotted a worm 10 feet down, poking its head out of a sheer ice face.
Hartzell has seen them with their tails anchored in ice and their heads waving in meltwater streams.
She's convinced they travel through tiny fissures in the ice, but other scientists have suggested the worms secrete a substance that melts a path, like a warm knife through butter.
Polar bears weather the cold with thick insulation and the ability to generate their own heat. Antarctic cod have blood laced with antifreeze. Ice worms don't have any of these defenses.
Instead, they have the remarkable ability to boost their cells' energy production when the temperature drops, Shain discovered. "It's equivalent to putting more gasoline in your tank," he said.
The worms also possess cell membranes and enzymes that function and stay flexible in temperatures where most animals' cellular processes creak to a halt.
The downside is extreme sensitivity to heat. At about 40 degrees F, the worms' membranes melt and their enzymes go haywire.
Shain's NASA project focuses on a key enzyme that regulates the worms' energy cycle.
Organs harvested for transplant deteriorate as the cells' energy stores are depleted, he said. Unraveling the ice worms' metabolism may lead to drugs or chemical solutions that could keep organs alive longer.
It's more of a long shot, but Shain thinks the worms might also hold clues to suspended animation, or cryonics, the freezing of people or organs. In his laboratory refrigerator, worms have lived up to two years with no apparent source of food.
... within the next 50 years. National Geographic funded one of the first field surveys to focus on ice-worm ecosystems. "They're kind of ...
I had this sent to me but when i went it never mentioned National Geographic anyway here it is
www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/living/science/14165072.htm
Enigma of the ice wormTiny creature slow to give up its secrets
By Sandi Doughton
THE SEATTLE TIMES
Ben Lee is stalking a creature most people think is a myth, if they've heard of it at all.
"I don't know what we'll see," he said, loading an ice ax and snow shovel into his backpack. "Nobody knows what ice worms do in winter."
Lee, a senior at the University of Puget Sound, has come to Mount Rainier to find out.
Thriving in conditions that would turn most living things to Popsicles, these inch-long earthworm cousins inhabit glaciers and snowfields in the coastal ranges of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. They move through seemingly solid ice with ease and are at their liveliest near the freezing point of water. Warm them up slightly and they dissolve into goo.
Their life cycle remains a mystery.
But ice worms are beginning to yield their secrets to a few hardy scientists who see broad applications from understanding one of the planet's oddest inhabitants.
NASA anted up $200,000 last year to explore the worms' cold tolerance and what it might say about the possibility of life on Jupiter's icy moons and other planets. That work could also improve cold storage of organs and tissues for transplantation.
As glaciers shrink in the face of global warming, interest is growing in ice worms and other animals whose habitat could melt away within the next 50 years. National Geographic funded one of the first field surveys to focus on ice-worm ecosystems.
"They're kind of hot right now," Lee said as he and roommate Dave Eiriksson strapped on their gear and headed up the slopes above Paradise.
The rare sunny day was perfect for "worming," as the 23-year-old Lee calls it.
The men followed a snowshoe trail that wound steeply through stands of subalpine fir half-buried in pillowy drifts. More than 600 inches of snow fall here in an average year, and it's hard to imagine anything without fur could survive.
"People don't believe me when I tell them I'm studying ice worms," Lee said. "The words just don't go together."
A cold-loving Minnesotan, Lee picked ice worms for his undergraduate biology thesis because they're weird, haven't been studied much and provide an excuse to get out in the mountains. He spent last summer gathering specimens from glaciers across the Olympic range.
In warmer weather, the black worms are hard to miss. As the sun sets, they swarm to the surface to feed on algae, pollen and other digestible debris.
"In some places, they're so thick you can't step without killing tons of them," Lee said.
Before dawn, the worms retreat back into the ice. Their species name, solifugus, means sun-avoiding.
In winter, when algae can't grow and snow blankets the surface, Lee suspects the worms simply stay deep inside the ice, perhaps in a dormant state.
His plan is to root them out.
"A hundred years of research adds up to about this much paper," Lee said, holding his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart.
Searching the Internet, he connected with biologists Dan Shain and Paula Hartzell, who between them probably account for the bulk of the world's ice-worm expertise.
In summer, Hartzell said, he has found worms in blue ice more than six feet below the surface. Lee peered into a crevasse in Olympic National Park and spotted a worm 10 feet down, poking its head out of a sheer ice face.
Hartzell has seen them with their tails anchored in ice and their heads waving in meltwater streams.
She's convinced they travel through tiny fissures in the ice, but other scientists have suggested the worms secrete a substance that melts a path, like a warm knife through butter.
Polar bears weather the cold with thick insulation and the ability to generate their own heat. Antarctic cod have blood laced with antifreeze. Ice worms don't have any of these defenses.
Instead, they have the remarkable ability to boost their cells' energy production when the temperature drops, Shain discovered. "It's equivalent to putting more gasoline in your tank," he said.
The worms also possess cell membranes and enzymes that function and stay flexible in temperatures where most animals' cellular processes creak to a halt.
The downside is extreme sensitivity to heat. At about 40 degrees F, the worms' membranes melt and their enzymes go haywire.
Shain's NASA project focuses on a key enzyme that regulates the worms' energy cycle.
Organs harvested for transplant deteriorate as the cells' energy stores are depleted, he said. Unraveling the ice worms' metabolism may lead to drugs or chemical solutions that could keep organs alive longer.
It's more of a long shot, but Shain thinks the worms might also hold clues to suspended animation, or cryonics, the freezing of people or organs. In his laboratory refrigerator, worms have lived up to two years with no apparent source of food.
