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September 4, 2009

Strange but True!

Q. As NASA prepares to spend billions on the search for life elsewhere in the solar system, it’s worth recalling a few of the exotic and weird life forms right under our noses. Where?

A. Earth’s own “extremophiles” have adapted to the most inhospitable environments, says Chris Impey in Astronomy magazine. Meet Bacillus infernus, the “bacillus from hell,” able to withstand great heat, pressure, acidity. This hardy microbe turned up in Virginia living in rock several miles underground, where the pressure is hundreds of times greater than on the surface. It exists independent of the Sun’s rays, without photosynthesis, consuming no organic material and dividing only about once every thousand years.


 
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