By Julia Talarn Rabascall
Santiago, Dec 23 (EFE).– The quest to pry into the secrets of some of the most radiation-resistant organisms on Earth led Chilean scientist Jenny Blamey to the Union Glacier, just 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the South Pole.

These microorganisms, classified as extremophiles, can survive in environments with constant sub-freezing temperatures, enduring high levels of radiation.

“The discovery of these microorganisms caused a re-ordering in the understanding of science and the notion we had about the origins of life on the planet,” Blamey sain in an interview with EFE.

Until 1980, scientists believed it was impossible to find any organism able to thrive in environments with such extreme conditions as those in Antarctic glaciers.

Blamey, science director at Chile’s Bio-Science Foundation, is one of 15 researchers taking part in the scientific expedition to the Science Polar Station at Union Glacier, a facility operated jointly by Chile’s Antarctic Institute, or Inach, and the military.

“We want to learn what it is that gives these microorganisms the ability to resist freezing temperatures and also endure up to 5,000 times more ionizing radiation than any other organism,” Blamey said.

Another mystery about these microorganisms surrounds the enzymes that allow them to catalyze chemical reactions in extreme environments, endowing them with such high resistance to ionizing radiation, since it is thought that such conditions have never existed in the history of Earth.

Some astro-biologists theorize that if such conditions have never existed on the planet, the microorganisms may have come from outer space, finding a niche in Antarctica or other extreme environments to which they adapted.

Blamey said she preferred to think that their quick evolution allowed these microorganisms to adapt and acquire such abilities.

“I prefer to believe that is what happened because to think that these microorganisms came from outer space is, simply, speculation and there is no experimental evidence that could demonstrate that,” the scientist said.

The information collected by Blamey in Antarctica could help, for example, in the creation of detergents effective in cold water and the invention of pharmaceutical components to protect humans from gamma radiation after nuclear disasters.

“So far, we know which temperatures and levels of radiation these microorganisms are able to resist, but we have not been able to discover the mechanism that makes that possible,” Blamey told EFE.