Life @ 197° F

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061214_nitrogen_microbes.html

A certain type of extremophile is even more extreme than scientists thought. A microbe that converts nitrogen into energy was found thriving in temperatures that shatter previous records for similar organisms.

The new organism is a type of archaeon, a single-celled organism that lacks a nucleus. Many archaeons are extremophiles, organisms that thrive in extreme conditions that most other life on Earth would find inhospitable.

This nitrogen-fixing microbe was isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent below the seafloor in the northeast Pacific and was found to grow in temperatures up to 197 degrees Fahrenheit. Another nitrogen-fixing microbe held the previous record of 147 degrees Fahrenheit.
>

[Jessterw]

Yet another example of how much more we have to learn about our own planet and the diversity of life that inhabits it.

[Dr Mordrid]

And the potential for life to exist elsewhere.

[Jessterw]

Quite so. There's always the argument that life here was such an improbable fluke, and yet when you at the sheer diversity of species, it's rather hard to not believe that life elsewhere is not just possible but probable.

[Dr Mordrid]

Especially given how many amino acids etc. are found in molecular clouds and comets.

Then there's the new work at the U. of Nebraska showing water cooled in a 1.4 nm bucky-tube self-organizes into a double helix very similar to DNA's appearance.

Simulation


Since both are found in nature it makes one wonder what Mother Nature has done with that process in exotic environments containing organics as well

[TnT]

With the billions of planets out there and billions of years of time the chances that life doesn't exist elsewhere is pretty slim. The chances of us ever finding it is the harder one.

There was an IMAX/OmniMAX movie on extremophiles a while back. Pretty cool stuff.