This Green Hell Page 30

  The three Jesuits died in November 1628. Six months later a written account was prepared as evidence in the process of their beatification; the original documents were lost but copies were found many years later in the Argentine. Roque González, Alonso Rodrigues and Juan de Castillo were declared blessed in 1934, and canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1988. The three Jesuits remain the earliest beatified martyrs of America.

  Carbon-hungry bacteria: methanogenesis

  In my story, I have Aimee Weir looking for the key to a process called methanogenesis. She looks for the unique bacteria that actually ingests carbons and produces natural gas, miles below the earth. This is a real biochemical occurrence, and although science today understands how the methanogenesis process works, and also understands the time scales and transition characteristics, the full range of the microorganic zoology (types of bacteria) involved is still a mystery. Consider this piece from the US Geological Survey:

  Natural gas generated from microbial activity in natural organic deposits (coal, black shale, petroleum) represents an increasingly important natural resource … It is estimated that natural gas from microbial activity (methanogenesis) accounts for about twenty per cent of the world’s natural gas resource. Since this gas is biologically produced, it also represents a possible renewable resource. Examples of microbial-produced natural gas deposits in the United States include: the organic-rich Antrim shale deposits in northern Michigan, and the shallow eastern edge of the Powder River Basin coal [sic] in Wyoming.

  Although a considerable body of research exists on the biology of methanogenesis, there is much less known about the microbial-mediated conversion of geopolymers such as coal, black shale and petroleum to methane. Methanogenesis involves a large consortium of microorganisms in order to convert the geopolymers in fossil fuels to methane. Methanogenic archaea are the end producers of methane, but the consortia also includes fermenting bacteria that biodegrade geopolymers in the organic deposit to simpler molecules utilized by methanogenic archaea. The nature of the microorganisms, enzyme systems and decomposition pathways involved in the production of microbial natural gas from organic deposits is actually poorly understood.

  Porphyria; the ‘vampire’ disease

  Were vampires real? Sensitivity to sunlight, lengthening teeth, and unusual hair growth; not to mention blood drinking and an aversion to religious symbols. Unbelievable? Perhaps, but read on and see what you think.

  This article was created and made available by Mr Lawrence Koppy, a gentleman writer. Full details of this, and other articles, can be found on: http://www.suite101.com/writer_articles.cfm/lkoppy:

  Porphyria, sometimes called ‘the vampire disease’, is a collection of rare, genetic blood disorders. Extreme cases of the disease can manifest gruesome symptoms where victims accumulate pigments called porphyrins in the skin, bones and teeth. While harmless in the dark, porphyrins become caustic, flesh eating toxins that can cause gruesome facial disfigurement when exposed to the ultraviolet rays of sunshine. Noses and ears can be eaten away with lips exhibiting a red, burned effect until they peel back from the gums that in turn recede, exposing the teeth in an unnatural way with a frightening, fang-like appearance (compare these symptoms with the description of Stoker’s Dracula below).

  His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth … was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp teeth; and these protruded over the lips.

  Like the vampires of legend who can be weakened or even destroyed by the rays of the sun, real life victims of porphyria do indeed need to exercise great caution when venturing out into ordinary sunlight. This is due to the way porphyria cause changes in heme, a component of blood that carries oxygen throughout the body and is used to remove carbon dioxide.

  Heme is turned into a toxic substance by porphyria, which the body then tries to break down. Lacking the ability to dispose of these toxic substances the body deposits them on the skin, gums and teeth. As the disease grows worse, the skin blackens, swells, and ruptures when exposed to the sun with hair growing from the sores. This hair growth could have made the victim appear to be changing into some sort of wolf-like beast and become woven into the fabric of vampire/werewolf legend.

  One of the most well known myths associated with vampires, the drinking of human blood, can also be attributed to porphyria. It has been theorised that people afflicted with porphyria centuries ago may have used the folk remedy of drinking animal blood as a way to relieve their pain and the associated anemia. Add to this the fact that blood-drinking would have taken place during the night when porphyria victims did not have to worry about reactions to sunlight and it is easy to see how these unusual practices could well have been incorporated by people of that era into a crucial part of vampire lore.

  Victims of porphyria, due to fear and superstition, subsequently became victims of the law during the 16th century, a time when the Inquisition was flourishing. Individuals suffering from revolting disfigurement faced doctors who wouldn’t or didn’t know how to treat the disease. This left them at the mercy of church officials who demanded they confess their sins or face death by fire.

  Approximately 600 people suffering from porphyria during this time were burned at the stake. This could explain folklore that has vampires repelled by crucifix-wearing priests. Porphyria victims of that era would likely have associated the church with danger and have had an aversion to religious symbols.

  Life from deep space

  This article is included with thanks to Lucy Sherriff and The Register online magazine, and can be found at http://theregister.co.uk/2006/12/04/organic_rain/

  Scientists have found evidence that the seeds of life may indeed have fallen from the sky. Analysis of a meteorite that fell onto the frozen Tagish Lake in Canada in 2000 has shown the space rock to be riddled with organic material that is billions of years old, and at least as old as the solar system itself. Researchers speculate that this kind of matter could have played a vital role in the development of early life on Earth.

  The Tagish Lake meteorite is unusual because it is so well preserved. Most meteorites, although usefully frozen in space, thaw or become contaminated when they arrive on Earth. This has frustrated researchers’ attempts to test the hypothesis that organic material could have arrived on the primordial Earth on comets, asteroids, and meteors.

  A team of NASA scientists, led by Keiko Nakamura- Messenger, scanned the Tagish meteorite in slices with a transmission electron microscope. This revealed sub-microscopic‘globules’, which consisted largely of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, the researchers report.

  To have captured such exotic isotope mixes, the meteorite must have formed much further from the sun than the Earth, Nakamura-Messenger says, which confirms that the chemicals are not contaminants, but are native to the space rock. They were most likely part of the cloud of material from which the planets themselves formed.

  The team suggests two possible ways that the globules formed: in both cases they began life as icy grains that formed on the rock in the outer reaches of a very young solar system. It is possible that the grains then formed a hardened shell when bombarded by radiation. The centre would later have evaporated, leaving a hollow shell of organic matter. Alternatively, the grains were exposed to alkali compounds in the meteor itself, which could have hollowed out the centres. The research, which is published in the journal Science, cites 26 such globules. But Nakamura-Messenger says the meteorite could contain billions of them.

  Legends of the missing Inca gold

  In This Green Hell, I had Ramón and Hector searching the jungle for lost gold. There are real reasons for this, and even today there are probably hundreds of men and women hacking through the South American jungle in search of the missing riches of the Incas.

  This is because there are so many legends about Incan gold, and the great wealth that was hidden at the fall of their empire. As an example, the
re was the Great Golden Chain (a thousand feet long), that needed two hundred of the strongest warriors to carry it. The ceremonial chain was supposed to have been cast into a lake … but more likely, something that huge (and heavy!) would have been buried. Another was a Golden Sun, giving off magnificent rays of pure gold that occupied the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco. In addition, the Incas delighted in fashioning objects and everyday scenes from beaten gold – an extraordinary example would have been the Garden Courtyard, or Garden of the Sun. It was a life-sized garden, complete with rows of corn, sheep and shepherds – all fashioned from gold. The crops were sown with maize – the stalks, leaves and ears of which were all gold. There were golden shepherds who guarded the sheep, armed with slings and staves made of gold and silver. And lastly, but not finally, there were the mummies of thirteen past Incan emperors coated with gold, studded with jewels and seated on golden chairs – all of which vanished at the time of King Atahualpa’s death in 1533.

  These artifacts have never been recovered from the jungle – their dollar value is estimated in the billions, but their historical value is priceless. The list is extensive, but perhaps the subject is best summarised by Pedro Cieza de Léon (1520 – 1554) in a small excerpt from one of the volumes of his significant Chronicles of Peru:

  If all the gold that is buried in Peru … were collected, it would be impossible to coin it, so great the quantity; and yet the Spaniards of the conquest got very little, compared with what remains … If, when the Spaniards entered Cuzco they had not committed other tricks, and had not so soon executed their cruelty in putting Atahualpa to death, I do not know how many great ships would have been required to bring such treasure to old Spain, as is now lost in the bowels of the earth and will remain so because those who buried it are now dead.

  Thank you to author Robert Lebling and Mysteries Magazine for allowing use of portions of his article. The full article can be found at Mysteries Magazine: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22717756/Locating-the-Lost-Chain-of-the-Inca-Mysteries-Magazine-05 [PDF].