And it's not even April 1st yet.
>From the 29 March 2000 EurekAlert
>Reports of "weird life" almost stranger than fiction
>Life on the Edge (sidebar)
> The limits of life on Earth are much broader than previously thought.
Examples of life
> at extreme conditions include: Hottest: 235.4 F--bacteria from deep
sea vents
> Coldest: 5 F--microalgae in Antarctic rocks Deepest: Bacteria, two miles
> underground in rocks Most acidic: Unclassified organisms growing on
gypsum in
> caves at pH 0 Highest radiation: 5 million rads--Deinococcus
radiodurans (bacteria)
> Saltiest: Bacteria, 30 percent salt environment Deepest and Highest
pressure: 1200
> atm--at bottom of Marianas Trench (ocean) Farthest: Moon,
Streptococcus mitus
> (from human source) from Surveyor III camera after three years
unprotected on lunar
> surface
>
> Sidebar Source: NASA (http:astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/overview.html)
Note, if you will, the last item:
>Streptococcus mitus (from human source) from Surveyor III camera after
three years
>unprotected on lunar surface
Clearly, one of the Apollo missions collected this sample, three years
after the arrival of the Surveyor. Anyone know more about this?
A terrestrial organism still viable after three years in the heat, cold,
radiation, and vacuum of outer space. I don't know about you, but I'm
impressed.
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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