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Plain language summary:

This study looks at the Critical Zone, which is the area of the Earth's land surface that is responsible for sustaining life. Researchers from the University of Arizona found a link between the activities of carbon-consuming microbes and the transformation of rock to soil in the critical zone. They also found that microbial life is an "active engineer" in determining how the Earth's critical zone evolves. The findings of this study provide insight into how mineral weathering, microorganisms, and organic acids interact to form soil and how this affects the carbon cycle and global climate.

The older I’ve gotten + new scientific discoveries, the more I’ve realized microbes seem to actually control everything that takes place on earth.

Humans and all life forms are simply microbe hotels.

They really are the invisible foundation that all life rests on.

There is something like 10 Quintillion insects across the world that provide the baseline for most other higher creatures to survive in the food chain.

But without the unfathomable sea of microbes on and in almost every surface and organism life has no foundation.

It's both beautiful and creepy at the same time. Especially as we find out that signals from our gut microbiome influence our thoughts; how much are we really in control in the grand scheme of life and how much is the whims of natural process.

Much like animals, I don't see why not.

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My thoughts and mood change vastly with certain foods.

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Isn't this basically the Gaia theory of feedback systems? Life affects process which makes it more beneficial for said life, which then evolves and affects process more, etc

Stephen J Gould said that the Age of Bacteria started billions of years ago and we are still in it.

It makes sense that root exudate boosts microbial activity in the breakdown of rocks because plants are highly motivated to break through rocks. So why not get the bacteria to help.

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Also, i wonder how this connects with the hypothesis that clay might have been a catalyst for the development of prebiotic self replicating chemistry. Perhaps this original system still continues.

Dokuchayev, 19th century.