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Hot Topic
Origins
Extreme Life
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| Extreme Animals |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
09/01/02 |
| Because of their ability to withstand hostile conditions, tardigrades and other cryptobiotic organisms are of interest to astrobiologists. Some tardigrades can survive in temperatures as low as minus 200 degrees Celsius (minus 328 F). |
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| Tracking the Path of Green Slime |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/28/02 |
| Cyanobacteria gave us oxygen for the atmosphere and a protective ozone layer, and they led to the development of all the green plants in the world today. They can be found everywhere from the surface of the oceans to underneath rocks in the desert. |
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| Bacteria: Survival in Siberia |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/14/02 |
| While Mars experts have gathered evidence of ice on Mars for some time, results in May from the Odyssey spacecraft showed large amounts of subsurface ice. The concept of suspended animation supports the plots of dozens of science fiction books and movies. |
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| Prospecting for Viruses |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/04/02 |
| Under scalding, acidic conditions, how do life processes function? Because of their simplicity relative to cellular life forms, the 3500 described viruses may offer scientists the best opportunity to glean information about survival in extreme environments. |
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| High-pressure Living |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/12/02 |
| Most researchers have concluded that only some exotic forms of life might survive at 30 miles below ground or 100 miles beneath the ocean. But a recent study published in Science magazine highlights what might be a large and subterranean biomass, even for common surface bacteria. |
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| Salt of the Early Earth |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/11/02 |
| Scientists have long assumed that life originated in the sea. If life did spring from salt water, that could explain why all organisms use salt. But Paul Knauth, an astrobiologist with Arizona State University, says while we always assume that life came from the ocean, this theory has never been proven. |
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| The Driest Place on Earth |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/08/02 |
| How much water does life need to survive? Chile's Atacama desert hold some interesting clues - clues that may help researchers in the hunt for life on Mars. |
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| The First Sulfur Eaters |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/06/02 |
| Sulfate-reducing bacteria have been known to exist at least 2.72 billion years ago, but new findings from Western Australian rocks push the date of their existence back an additional 750 million years. This would mean that sulfate-reducing bacteria are one of the oldest known life forms on the planet. |
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| Tandem Evolution |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/03/02 |
| A type of clam that inhabits deep-sea hydrothermal vents is so closely knit with a bacterium living in its tissues that their evolutionary paths, as recorded in their DNA, run in lockstep. |
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