A group of scientists at Louisiana State University, Montana State University and in France have found that those ubiquitous microorganisms known as bacteria aren't limited to hanging around near Earth's surface.
They also sweep up into the sky and could play a major role in the production of rain and snow.
They found them widely distributed through the atmosphere, and it seems that when the bacteria are in clouds, water and ice clumps on them until they fall back down to the ground, replicate and blow up into the sky again.
According to a study on Science Daily:
"Dust and soot particles can serve as ice nuclei, but biological ice nuclei are capable of catalyzing freezing at much warmer temperatures. If present in clouds, biological ice nuclei may affect the processes that trigger precipitation."
The bacteria could help cloud-seeding technologies improve, they said, which could help prevent drought in many parts of the world.
Of course, when writing this I did come up with one major question of my own:
Do bacteria qualify as "critters?" I mean, they are alive, right?
Anyway, here's the full story:
Evidence of 'Rain Making' Bacteria Discovered in Atmosphere and Snow
Cheers,
-SueVo
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