Australian Researcher Discovers Nanobes

In a discovery with implications for the search for life elsewhere in the solar system, Brisbane based researcher Dr Philippa Irwin has discovered what are believed to be life forms at an unprecedently small scale. Called nanobes, they were found in rock samples drilled from 5km below the seabed off the Western Australia.

As small as 20 nanometres, they are similar in size to the so-called fossils found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. In 1996 NASA scientists controversially announced they thought they had found tiny fossil structures in this meteorite. The size of some of the structures was smaller than the known minimum scale of life on earth.