SpaceRef - Astrobiology and Life Science

SpaceRef - Astrobiology and Life Science - Extremophiles

27 May 2006

Extremophiles, Bacteriammuseum.org - bacteria have the potential to adapt to extreme conditions. Many places on Earth are too harsh to support most life forms, but can support bacteria. Before we explore some of the hottest, coldest, darkest and deepest places of our planet.

Extremophile, Wikipedia - An extremophile is an organism, usually unicellular, which thrives in or requires 'extreme' conditions that would exceed optimal conditions for growth and reproduction in the majority of mesophilic terrestrial organisms.

Extremophiles, Antarctica, and Extraterrestrial Life, Genome News Network - Extremophiles are the ultimate adventurers. These organisms thrive where other microbes don't dare venture: boiling water holes, freezing lakes, and toxic waste dumps.

Extremophiles, Elsevier - This latest volume in the Methods in Microbiology series provides an overview of the methods used for the isolation, cultivation and handling of a wide variety of extremophiles, both at the stage of their isolation from natural samples and in pure culture. It contains protocols specific for work with extremophiles, as well as adaptations of 'standard' microbiology protocols modified to enable the handling of extremophiles.

CentreÊfor ExtremophileÊResearch - Extremophiles are micro-organisms that inhabit some of earth's most hostile environments of temperature (-2¼C to 15¼C and 60¼C to 120¼C), salinity (3-5M NaCl), pH (<4 and >9), and/or pressure (>400 atmospheres).

Extremophiles, National Science Foundation - Life abounds in the most unexpected placesÑeven extreme places. An organism that thrives in an extreme environment is called an extremophile. In the past decade, the search for this type of life has exploded. Discoveries about microscopic life inside seafloor vents are just one example. As we learn more about these organisms, we may learn more about the possibility of life beyond Earth.

History of Extremophiles, ThinkQuest - Extremophiles were first discovered just 40 years ago in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Since their discovery, scientists around the world have worked to find how extremophiles might be useful to humans, and how they might harm humans.

Domain Archaea - This page presents a phylogenetic overvew of the Archaea including a graphic that shows how the Archaea are related to other forms of life.

Extremophiles on Earth and Beyond - What is extreme here may be just business-as-usual elsewhere. A look at some of the forms of life we've found on this planet - and the implications for finding life on other worlds. Article from the Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Ad Astra magazine.

Hypolithic algae at Johnson Canyon: Death Valley sample collection - This is a report of a sample collection project to identify locations where hypolithic algae exist and to compare the algae in the dry conditions at locations within the Park to those in other places such as Antarctica, the Gobi, Negev, and Atacama deserts. NASA Center for Mars Exploration.

Ice Worms Website - This website at Pennsylvania State University focuses on the discovery of Methane ice worms on Gulf of Mexico sea floor in 1997. These worms ingest bacteria that feed off of methane hydrate deposits in deep, dark, cold ocean depths. This finding is especially exicting when the compostion of other worlds in our solar system is taken into account.

Life at High Temperatures - This page is an online booklet describing the hotsprings at Yellowstone National Park and the thermophillic bacteria that reside within them. Written by Thomas D. Brock at the University of Wisconsin -Madison.

Researchers Seek Origin of Deep Subsurface Bacteria - Life on our planet may have evolved first at depth, then migrated to the surface as the environment became more tolerable. If this is so, the study of deep, subsurface microbial communities may provide another key to exploring our distant past. Ironically, these tiny creatures also may carry keys to our future. [American Geophysical Union].

The Microbial Biogeochemistry Group - This group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory focuses on basic microbial ecology and bioremediation in the subsurface and the basic science underlying bioremediation efforts, carbon cycling, and other uses of biotechnology. Extremophiles and extreme environments comprise some of the topics researched.