Surprised Scientists Find Lifeforms Six Miles Above Earth’s Surface
Source: Gizmodo
For the first time, scientists have found lifeforms where nobody thought it was possible: floating in the troposphere, the slice of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles (eight to 15 kilometers) above Earth's surface. And not just a tiny few, but lot: 20% of every particle in that atmospheric layer are living organisms.
This has profound implications for our understanding of weather, the spread of disease, and life on other planets.
Scientists previously believed that all the suspended particles in this part of the atmosphere were dust and salt, but this new study—"the first of its kind" say the researchers—demonstrates that life can exist in places that we couldn't imagine, under such extreme conditions, living and feeding. According to Kostas Konstantinidis, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering:
"We did not expect to find so many microorganisms in the troposphere, which is considered a difficult environment for life. There seems to be quite a diversity of species, but not all bacteria make it into the upper troposphere."
Read more: http://gizmodo.com/5980166/surprised-scientists-find-lifeforms-six-miles-above-earths-surface
= new reply since forum marked as read
in Engineering...but..it's something to read....but always be aware with folks wanting to have attention.
Hey...it's an interesting read...but....questions...which is GOOD!
And another 60-70%% is most likely particles of uh, microscopic, um, waste.
All kidding aside, this is an extremely interesting discovery.
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POOPIN on tha CLOUDS, I tell ya!!!!!!!!!!
cooooool! I love little creatures. 
Ever since I read about single celled organisms alive in the rocks 2 miles down in an African mine, I have been prepared to believe the entire Earth, from troposphere to deep sea trenches to molten center, is capable of sustaining some form of life.
There are life forms clinging to the undersides of the ice sheets of Antarctica. There are life forms living alongside boiling hot vents at the bottom of the ocean. There are nematodes living on bacteria over two miles under the earth in South African gold mines.
Mother Earth
Hekate
"There's a hair on the mole on the nematode on the bacteria on the bump on the frog at the hole in the bottom of the mine!"
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they mean to express surprise at life being found in the 'upper troposphere.' Also "four to six miles" is not "eight to 15 kilometers." 
Pretty fascinating finding, however...
