From afar, clouds may seem like nothing more than floating wisps of water vapor. But look closer, and you’ll find they are bustling with life. Bacteria, fungi, and even viruses live and travel in the atmosphere, forming what researchers now call the aerobiome.
Though the sky was once considered too extreme to support life, researchers now know it’s home to resilient microbes. Carried by wind from soil, oceans, and human activity, these organisms can soar across continents and reach heights as high as the stratosphere. Once inside clouds, they become trapped in tiny droplets, facing intense cold, radiation, and nutrient scarcity.
Despite these harsh conditions, many microbes don’t just survive ? they thrive. At France’s Puy de Dome mountain, scientists compared cloud and clear-air samples and found higher RNA-to-DNA ratios in the former, a strong sign of microbial activity. Some bacteria even switch on genes to process nutrients and grow. One type, the Methylobacterium, uses sunlight to break down organic carbon in droplets ? essentially “eating” the cloud. Scientists estimate that microbes break down about a million tons of organic carbon in clouds annually worldwide.
Even more fascinating is the potential role cloud microbes play in weather. Some, like the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, cause ice crystals to develop in clouds, triggering snow or rain. As precipitation falls, it carries microbes back to Earth.
However, not all cloud microbes are harmless or beneficial. Some can be pathogenic, carry antibiotic resistance genes, or impact cloud formation in ways that are not yet fully understood. And with climate change altering wind and rain cycles, scientists are racing to understand how cloud microbes fit into the bigger picture.
So next time you look up at the sky, know that clouds are more than they seem ? they’re living, moving worlds that quietly influence life on Earth.
Yesel Kang Copy Editor teen/1751271026/1613367750
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4. What future tools might use this invention?
1. Have you ever heard white noise before?
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4. What kind of invention would you like to create?
From afar, clouds may seem like nothing more than floating wisps of water vapor. But look closer, and you’ll find they are bustling with life. Bacteria, fungi, and even viruses live and travel in the atmosphere, forming what researchers now call the aerobiome.
Even more fascinating is the potential role cloud microbes play in weather. Some, like the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, cause ice crystals to develop in clouds, triggering snow or rain. As precipitation falls, it carries microbes back to Earth.
