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extremophiles

Dr. Brock standing in nature, holding a walking stick and wearing binoculars around his neck.

Lisa Winter | Apr 23, 2021 | 2 min read

Brock’s discovery of a thermophile bacteria at Yellowstone National Park in 1966 eventually enabled the development of PCR.

bacteria, microbe, deep sea, South Pacific Gyre, JOIDES Resolution, field research, sediment, geomicrobiology

Scientists Awaken Deep Sea Bacteria After 100 Million Years

Amanda Heidt | Jul 29, 2020 | 3 min read

The microbes had survived on trace amounts of oxygen and were able to feed and multiply once revived in the lab.

Extreme Biotech: Understanding Extremophile Biology to Impact Human Health

The Scientist | 1 min read

Jaclyn Winter and Shiladitya DasSarma will discuss how they harness the unique biology of extremophiles for the discovery and development of new therapeutics.

Life Rides the Wind in the Desert

Ashley Yeager | Dec 1, 2019 | 4 min read

As the afternoon breezes blow harder in the Atacama Desert—a place so desolate it’s used as a model of Mars—more microbes move into its driest regions.

Arsenic-Resistant Nematodes Found in Mono Lake

Abby Olena, PhD | Sep 26, 2019 | 3 min read

Researchers recovered eight species from the salty, alkaline environment—increasing the known biodiversity of animals in the California lake five-fold.

Life Deep Underground Is Twice the Volume of the Oceans: Study

Carolyn Wilke | Dec 11, 2018 | 2 min read

Scientists estimate that subterranean organisms constitute a massive amount of carbon, 245 to 385 times greater than that contained in all humans.

New Insights into Tardigrades’ Ability to Withstand Drying Out

Kerry Grens | Dec 6, 2017 | 2 min read

Water bears can reanimate after years of desiccation—and gel-forming proteins unique to the animals may explain how.

Search for Life on the Red Planet

Diana Kwon | Dec 1, 2017 | 10+ min read

Growing evidence points to a once-habitable world—and recent findings suggest that life could exist on Mars today.

Infographic: The Hazards of Life on Mars

Diana Kwon | Nov 30, 2017 | 1 min read

High levels of radiation, among other health risks, challenge the future colonization of the Red Planet.

Researchers Discover Salt-Loving Methanogens

Abby Olena, PhD | May 26, 2017 | 3 min read

Two previously overlooked archaeal strains fill an evolutionary gap for microbes.

Microbes Persist in Super-Salty Conditions

Tanya Lewis | Jun 23, 2016 | 3 min read

Extremophiles can thrive on perchlorates and metabolize carbon monoxide, researchers report.

Prokaryotic Microbes with Eukaryote-like Genes Found

Jyoti Madhusoodanan | May 6, 2015 | 3 min read

Deep-sea microbes possess hallmarks of eukaryotic cells, hinting at a common ancestor for archaea and eukaryotes.

Extremophiles on Display

Ashley P. Taylor | Apr 2, 2015 | 2 min read

A new American Museum of Natural History exhibit highlights the incredible range of conditions under which life on Earth survives.

Stubbornly Persistent

Mary Beth Aberlin | Feb 1, 2015 | 3 min read

Microorganisms continually challenge our assumptions of what life can achieve.

The Energy of Life

Jeffrey Marlow and Jan Amend | Feb 1, 2015 | 10+ min read

Extremophiles should not be viewed through an anthropocentric lens; what’s extreme for us may be a perfectly comfortable environment for a microbe.

Contributors

Molly Sharlach and Jenny Rood | Feb 1, 2015 | 3 min read

Meet some of the people featured in the February 2015 issue of The Scientist.

Extreme Living

Jeffrey Marlow and Jan Amend | Jan 31, 2015 | 1 min read

Take a tour of deep-sea methane seeps and meet the organisms that call these extreme environments home.

Genome Digest

Jyoti Madhusoodanan | Aug 26, 2014 | 5 min read

What researchers are learning as they sequence, map, and decode species’ genomes

Astrogerm

Bob Grant | Nov 11, 2013 | 1 min read

Researchers find a new bacterial species lurking in clean rooms used to assemble spacecraft at NASA and the European Space Agency.