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| Warren-Rhodes searching for colonized quartz stones in the Turpan Depression, the driest spot in China. |
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| The bacterial colony on this quartz rock from Aguas Calientes, in Chile´ Atacama Desert, can be seen as a greenish tinge in the lower right. |
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Scientists from the University of California at Riverside the University
of Delaware load decontaminated ice into a custom-made chamber for
melting.
Credit: University of Delaware |
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This image shows a pool in the geothermal field known as 'Hell's Gate', where the
methane-eating microbes were discovered.
Credit: University of Calgary
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The new bacteria was discovered in a geothermal field near the town of Rotorua, New
Zealand.
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| Canyon near the Laki lava eruption, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| Canyon near the Laki lava eruption, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| View of Hekla, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| Prof. Charles Cockell collecting rock samples from Hekla. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| Hot Spring view in Landmannalaugar, Iceland. Photo credit: Charles Cockell. |
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| Dr. Aude Herrera collecting samples in a hot spring in Landmannalaugar, Iceland. Photo credit: Charles Cockell. |
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| View of a lake in Landmannalaugar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| Joe Deeks, Prof. Stephen Self and Prof. Charles Cockell collecting rock samples in Landmannalaugar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| View of Hekla from Valahnukar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| View of Valahnukar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| Dr. Aude Herrera and Prof. Stephen Self standing in Valahnukar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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| View of Hekla from Valahnukar, Iceland. Photo credit: Aude Herrera. |
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Auburn University Professor Vitaly Vodyanoy (left) and research assistant Oleg
Pustovyy prepare to attach the Ilumna 120 to a microscope in their research
laboratory.
Credit: Auburn University
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The AU-developed Ilumna 120 microscope attachment (front) can be used in conditions
where electricity is not available. It also can be powered by an electrical
transformer (back) in laboratory settings and through solar power in the field.
Credit: Auburn University
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Cima Volcanic Field in the Mojave Desert of California.
Image credit: Dexter Perkins/University of North Dakota. |
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| In the ponds where salt is most highly concentrated, sodium chloride (table salt), gypsum and other minerals precipitate out of a briny solution. |
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| The green and red layers seen here are microbial communities living within the gypsum crust found in Guerrero Negro´ Area 9. Credit: NASA |
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| Commercial salt ponds near the Mexican town of Guerrero Negro, which lies about midway down the Baja California peninsula, produce methane gas that may help scientists understand the origin of methane in Mars´ atmosphere. |
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Todd Sowers of Penn State uses a band saw to cut samples of ice core for
analysis.
Credit: Penn State University
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Crushing rock samples in a stainless steel chamber (center) releases the stored hydrogen molecules measured by the hydrogen detector (left).
Image credit: Ipek Kulahci
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Rocks from different geological ages are expected to contain different amounts of hydrogen. This Archaean rock, collected in Pilbara, Australia, which is more than 2 billion years old is expected to contain low levels of hydrogen.
Image credit: Ipek Kulahci |
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| Dr. Friedmann Freund of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. |
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The cell membrane of the bacterium twists and turns to provide its unique shape.
Credit: Wanger et al., 2008
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The star-shaped bacterium was isolated from mine-slime, 1.7 km below the surface. The ruler shown for scale is in centimetres.
Credit: Wanger et al., 2008
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Researcher Julius Lipp, Ph.D., of Bremen University, Germany, with some of his samples.
Credit: Albert Gerdes, MARUM/Bremen |
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| A life told in stained glass. This window (c.1300) in St Mary's Church in the village of Deerhurst, England depicts Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The Roman Emperor Maxentius condemned her to death on the breaking wheel (an instrument of torture), but the wheel broke when she touched it, so she was instead beheaded. |
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Structures found in basalt from the Indian Ocean. The structures are believed to have been created by bacteria, which dissolve the glass in order to extract minerals.
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| These pillow lavas weren´t made for sleeping, but mountaineer Tim Burton still gives it a try. Note the shiny glassy rind formed by rapid quenching as hot lava came into contact water during emplacement. Photo credit: Thom Wilch. |
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| A cliff containing Archean pillow lavas, in the Barberton Greenstone belt of South Africa. Credit: Nicola McLoughlin. |
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A team of researchers is studying microbes beneath the retreating Puca
Glacier at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes.
Credity: University of Colorado at Boulder
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The team have discovered new hydrothermal vents similar to this, spewing hot chemicals into the surrounding environment.
Image credit: OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP); NOAA
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Jupiter´ icy moon Europa may contain a hidden ocean with hydrothermal vents.
Image credit: NASA / JPL
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This example of a creature that lives deep in the ocean shows that life can indeed adapt to conditions that we think of as extreme.
Image credit: NASA
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Desulforudis audaxviator is an organism that lives independently in total darkness and at high temperature by reducing sulfate and fixing carbon and nitrogen from its environment, deep within the Earth. It constitutes the first known single-species ecosystem.
Illustration © 2008 Thanya Suwansawad |
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The rod-shaped D. audaxviator was recovered from thousands of liters of water collected deep in the Mponeng Mine in South Africa.
Credit: Micrograph by Greg Wanger, J. Craig Venter Institute, and Gordon Southam, University of Western Ontario |
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Some water bears eat microscopic animals, while others consume algae.
credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames |
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Water bears are fundamentally aquatic animals, using their eight legs to walk in liquid.
Image credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames.
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Alien creatures with survival features like those used by water bears could exist on other worlds.
Image credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames.
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Artist´ representation of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. This RNA virus has killed hundreds of people since it was first reported in 2003.
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There are 6,000 million base pairs of DNA in the nucleus of almost every one of your cells. The DNA is packaged into 46 bundles called chromosomes. These long strands of information encode two sets of 80,000 different genes, one set inherited from each of your parents. A single gene ranges in size from a hundred base pairs to millions of base pairs. Image credit: The Science Museum, UK.
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The earliest life may have used RNA for functions now fulfilled by DNA and proteins.
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| Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, such as this one on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the Pacific coast of Washington State, spew super-hot mineral-rich fluids into the surrounding ocean water. Vents such as these are thought to be a possible location for life´ origin and early evolution. Credit: MBARI |
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| Massive carbonate formations, like the white cliffs of Dover on the English coast, are widespread on Earth, but only trace amounts of carbonate have been found on Mars. |
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| This early-stage embryo is protected by a fertilization envelope, seen here as a white line encircling the embryo cells. Credit: E.C. Raff and R.A. Raff |
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