Deep Sea Extremophiles (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 18, 2014, 01:55 (3607 days ago) @ David Turell

Well below the ocean floor, in a coal bed, living organisms!-http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30489814-"The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) found microbes living 2,400m beneath the seabed off Japan.-"The tiny, single-celled organisms survive in this harsh environment on a low-calorie diet of hydrocarbon compounds and have a very slow metabolism."-"The thought was that while there are some microbes that can eat compounds in coal directly, there may be smaller organic compounds - methane and other types of hydrocarbons - sourced from the coal that the microbes could eat as well.-"The experiments revealed that the microbes were indeed dining on these methyl compounds.-"The tests also showed that the organisms lived life in the slow lane, with an extremely sluggish metabolism."