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Hot Topic
Origins
Extreme Life
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Astrobiology Top 10: When Fungi Ruled the World
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/28/07 |
| Astrobiology Magazine is looking back over 2007, highlighting the Top 10 astrobiology stories of the year. At number 6 is the discovery that 420 million years ago, fungi stood as tall as trees, reaching up to 20 feet in height. |
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Astrobiology Top 10: Brought Back to Life
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/26/07 |
| Astrobiology Magazine is looking back over 2007, highlighting the Top 10 astrobiology stories of the year. At number 8 is the recovery of DNA from ancient microorganisms. The DNA showed an "exponential decline" after 1.1 million years, indicating how long DNA could be preserved in rocks in cold places. |
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Life at Hell's Gate
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/11/07 |
| A new species of bacteria has been discovered in a geothermal field in New Zealand known as 'Hell's Gate'. The bacteria is the hardiest 'methanotrophic' bacteria yet discovered, and may help in the fight against global warming. |
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Leaving No Stone Unturned
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/03/07 |
| Kimberley Warren-Rhodes has spent countless hours in some of the world´s driest deserts, turning over rocks. Tens of thousands of rocks. What is she hoping to find? The pattern of life. |
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Living Time Capsules
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
11/28/07 |
| Researchers have thawed ice from Antarctica that is at least a million years old to search for eons-old microorganisms. The microbes may have survived in total darkness, freezing cold and without food or energy from the Sun. |
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Jumping Viruses
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
11/14/07 |
| A new study in the hot pools of Yellowstone shows that microbial viruses may be traveling from pool to pool along with steam. The research on these extreme habitats for unique life may shed light on how microbes, and the viruses that infect them, impact their environment. |
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Deep Drilling for
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
11/11/07 |
| Researchers are preparing for a deep-drilling project in Iceland where they will study the processes in deep, hot rocks below the terrestrial surface. Through the study, they also hope to learn more about 'black smoker' hydrothermal vents in the ocean, which are known to support some of Earth's most unique organisms. |
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Life's Hot Spot
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
10/10/07 |
| Thousands of new kinds of microbes have been discovered living around hydrothermal vents off the Oregon coast. The new study has also yielded clues about how deep-sea microbial communities are connected to the global climate of Earth. |
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Getting a Taste of Space
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
09/12/07 |
| Samples of microorganisms and antibodies will be sent into near-Earth orbit this week and exposed to the extreme conditions of space. Such experiments can indicate whether life could travel in meteorites from one planet to another. |
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Essentially Immortal
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
09/05/07 |
| New research in Antarctica has revealed cells that might repair their DNA at extremely cold temperatures and, in doing so, could effectively be 'immortal'. If confirmed, the findings would have implications for the potential for life in the ice of worlds like Mars and Europa. |
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